Collateral Damage
by Joker-is-sexy
Summary: While traveling to the campsite for the first time, they found her walking on the side of the highway. Starts in season 1, before Rick joins the group. No 'girl tries to change Daryl and turn him soft' in this story. Constant yelling and dysfunctional relationships are more fun. Daryl/OC pairing.
1. Blackberries

**Direct quote** **from Norman Reedus:** "I'm kind of playing him like he's kind of a virgin, to be honest. If anyone approaches me I'm like ugh. I don't wanna be the sexy guy, I wanna be the loser. I don't wanna be having me like "I'm Daryl Dixon come and get it." I wanna be like "What you talking about, baby?" EWW! Almost like cooties." There is also an interview where he says that if he were to have Daryl make out with a female, he'd play it off as if its new to him, he has no game, and never been there before. Personally, before hearing this, I thought he'd be an aggressive awesome full of game relationship guy, but after reading that I intend to write as if everything is new to him, but of course that doesn't mean he'll be like "Durrrr how do I kiss". No, do not worry. I'll figure out how to do this right.

I like the character of Daryl because he's so interesting. He is quiet until provoked then he just gets angry. He doesn't know how to cope with emotions, so he just gets angry all the time. Coming from an abused past and being called a failure his whole life, that would obviously do that to a person. Reedus had a good quote about that about how he's playing Daryl to be a mix between someone who wants to kill everyone and poke their eyes out, to needing a hug.

My original character I don't intend to just flat out give her whole story, description, or life in the first chapter. Like every television show you will learn about her as you are going. So it may seem a little dry in her character the first chapter, but only because she's new to this group and she's not just gonna tell everyone her whole life story day one. Also if any character thinks another character is good looking, doesn't mean automatic pairing and that they like that character. We are all allowed to think someone is good looking haha. I italicize sentences that are thoughts. Enjoy. Reviews are fuel.

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Being surrounded by faces that were not half decaying was something she hadn't experienced in nearly a month. It almost seemed surreal. As their small fire crackled and the light dimly lit up the faces, she remained still while the rest chattered. She was seated with her knees drawn up and held close to her chest and her chin resting on the tops of her knees. The low mumbling faded as she silently watched the tips of the flames flicker barely over the stones keeping the light hidden. She looked over her back every so often. She was so used to sitting with her back against a tree or wall, never wanting to be attacked from the behind. But with a group in circular form around a fire, there was no need to watch behind her.

She looked behind her once more.

Old habits die hard.

Glenn passed her a plate that had been circulating around the circle slowly. On it held baked beans, something she was not too fond of, but anything was better than nothing. She scooped it into her bowl regardless and began to pick at it. She passed the bowl to her right, handing it to Amy who appeared to have the same reaction as her.

_What a strange day,_ She thought to herself, feeling the urge to almost pinch herself to see if everything was real. _If the dead are walking and I can believe that, I can believe that I am here…by a fire…surrounded by these people._

Six hours ago, Elle was walking on the side of the highway headed to Atlanta. Wearing a white dirt and sweat stained tank top, a pair of brown cargo pants had seen better days, and shoes that were caked in mud, she trudged along the pavement keeping an eye on her surroundings. Every so often scattered cars would be in the middle of the row and she managed to find a couple supplies here and there. Carrying only a backpack filled with enough food and water for a weeks' worth journey, she was armed with a baseball bat and a pistol with only four rounds. After a month of wandering, she finally had set a goal for herself to head to Atlanta upon hearing that shelters were being set up there.

The heat was brutal and sweat soaked her already dirty clothes and forced her walk to be slowed. She set goals for herself of every two hours; she could get a break and sip her water. It took every ounce of self-control to not take a gulp though when it was her time to drink. She had to conserve what she had.

_Okay…At that red car flipped over, I'll take a sip_. She thought to herself. She noticed at the thought of water her legs decided to pick up the pace a little as she eagerly became even with the car and a small sip of water sank down her throat.

Smacking her lips together to allow the left over droplets to moist her chap lips, she wiped her forehead and then her hand on the side of her pant.

_What the…_

Suddenly out of nowhere, in the distance she could see movement. A large RV was headed her way, and just beyond it she saw _moving_ vehicles. She stopped in her tracks unable to believe the movement. Obviously the walking dead had not learned to drive, so other people were alive and headed right towards her.

She blinked more than needed in that moment, as if waiting for the moment the cars would disappear and everything was a figment of her exhausted imagination.

_Holy shit._

Her body froze in place and the sounds of the engines of the moving line of cars were mumbled to her brain. She let the bottom of her baseball bat rest on the ground while she leaned forward on it. Her body went numb to feelings and breathing felt like a challenge for a moment. The shock of moving cars literally knocked the wind out of her. The heat caused the line of cars to be blurry, but the RV's textures and figure was coming into a solid view form.

She watched the RV slow down as it passed her and came to a complete stop some distance behind her. Turning on her heel, she saw the door opened and an average sized Asian man wearing a faded orange hat leaned out of the doorway. "Don't go towards the city. It's not safe!"

His sentence echoed in her mind.

A sound that was_ audible_.

_Don't go towards the city. It's not safe._

A sound other than low moaning of the undead or the animals within the forest mocking Elle with their freedom to sing and chirp as they pleased!

Elle stood there with her mouth slightly open in awe and had to take a moment to remember that she had to respond. She blinked to adjust her vision and then swallowed the lump in her throat to regain her voice.

"..It- It's not?" Was all she mustered to say, feeling rather foolish afterwards.

"Yeah. Walkers everywhere! You all alone? There's no one else with you?"

Elle could only shake her head, "No, just me."

"Wanna come with us? We got a lot of people in our group." He offered, keeping a hand on the threshold of the trailer and leaning out towards her. He seemed to be wanting her answer rather quickly by the nervous face he was making.

Being alone for a month, the opportunity to actually open her mouth and say words to other people instead of herself was enough to convince her to go. Even if in a normal situation, she learned never to trust strangers on the side of the road, she was willing to take the risk. She had accepted a long time ago that her days of life on Earth were not high and if her days ended for some odd reason due to the living then, at least she wouldn't be eaten. From what she had seen early in the outbreak with the army turning on civilians, it would have given her any reason to not trust people. But at the state she was in, alone, hungry, thirsty, giving up…. She would have to go with what life threw at her.

And currently it was throwing a line of cars headed away from the city.

"Alright."

"Get in." He motioned her to come into the RV. The other cars had just about caught up to the RV. Elle did not bother to look at the people within the cars and followed the Asian man into the trailer. The driver, an older looking man greeted her and immediately continued to drive. Elle sat down at the table, across from the Asian man.

"The name's Glenn." He spoke again giving a slight smile. She noticed he had a hard time looking someone in the eye when speaking. He was average height and was nervously cracking his fingers in the silence. His dark hair was hidden for the most part by the cap he wore, that held just as much dirt and wear as the cloths on Elle's back.

"I'm Elle." She nodded and returned the smile.

"I'm Dale." The driver called, an older man wearing a white hat. His look appeared to be as if he had been headed on a vacation before the outbreak occurred. Though, she could not get a good look at his face, she could see the gray and white hairs of his beard poking out to the sides of his face. "Were you headed to the city?"

"Yes." She called to him, turning towards him while she spoke even though he had her back to her driving. "I heard a couple months ago it was supposed to be safe there. I reckon it's not…."

"Yeah, we thought the same too," Glenn spoke, causing her gaze to shift back to him, "but we found it was overrun with walkers. We are heading up the mountain now. We found on a map this quarry that we could use to make a camp for now. Once we are settled down, I'll probably take trips into the city for supplies." On the table there was a map spread out and he pointed at the spot they were heading. "It's only about a half hour driving distance outside of the city."

"Well make sure you give me the directions Glenn. I don't wanna lead our group the wrong way." Dale reminded him.

"How many are there of you?" Elle asked, her southern accent faltering a second when she inhaled improperly. She rubbed her nose and coughed before repeating the question. The lack of water had caused her throat to dry up.

"Well…you'll just meet them when we set up camp. If I tell you names without faces you won't know what's going on." Glenn smiled.

"I don't mean to sound needy, but you guys got water? I have water myself and just wanna make sure if I drink the rest of my water that there is more around to drink." Elle asked, pulling out her water bottle from her backpack.

"We have plenty of water for now and will be getting more once we set up. Don't worry." He leaned back in his seat and looked out the window a moment. "Keep heading down this road Dale."

Elle thought Glenn was an adorable boy, emphasis on the _boy _part. He obviously was far younger than her. She found him to be pleasant looking, but more adorable in the way one would find a puppy. He looked very innocent just by the look in his brown eyes. They were wide and alert, looking from his hands to the window every so often. The moments he would make eye contact with Elle, she'd give him a small smile; feeling a bit bad for him.

"How old are you Glenn?" She asked, taking another sip of her water.

"Twenty. You?"

"Twenty eight."

"How'd you meet up with all the people following the RV?" Elle closed the cap of her bottle and threw it back into her bag.

"A couple were in the line headed to Atlanta originally…..We stuck together and camped out along the side of the road for a good few weeks. Then headed away from the city. Met a few more people along the road…" He stopped to give another direction to Dale before continuing, "We found nothing but cities overrun by geeks-"

"Geeks?" She gave a small laugh at disbelief of the word that came out of his mouth.

He stopped midsentence and returned the perplexed look as if she should know what the word meant. "Ah…the dead people walking around."

"The walkers," She stated.

"Well whatever you want to call them. The crazy things running around were over running all the nearby towns. We decided a week ago to head back to Atlanta, but we found it was just as worse. We stayed a little outside the city for a few days until we decided to head to this quarry. Then we saw you. After the first week of driving seeing people walking around is becoming rarer and rarer."

"Most people are dead." She said with a lack of emotion. "I haven't ran into a single person since I left my town, until you guys found me walking. I guess would be the right time to say thank you."

"Not going to leave a woman alone on the side of the road." Dale chimed.

Normally she'd make a remark about being characterized as a woman and the meaning behind it, but she held it in, not seeing the point.

_Don't even care at this point… I'm exhausted._

For a month alone, she had done very well for herself.

_Only a couple close calls…_

The rest of the drive Dale, Glenn, and Elle chatted about books oddly enough. Elle had noticed the book collection Dale had, and they began discussing books they have read and ones that were awful. Glenn every so often mid-conversation would stop and give directions to Dale. Talking felt so weird to her; it was a pleasure that she had forgotten to be so relaxing. The birds would only respond to her with mocking chirps but now as she spoke, actual human voices were speaking back. Being alone for a month, her voice would even get on her nerves. Sometimes she had felt if she did not speak to herself, she'd lose the ability to talk. Foolish now she knew, recollecting on her old way of thinking, but solitude is human beings worst enemy sometimes.

By the time they arrived at the quarry, Glenn peaked out the window and told Dale to stop at a clearing which he dubbed big enough to set up camp. Elle was a bit nervous to have to meet everyone in their group, Glenn and Dale she was now comfortable with. Dale reminded her of her grandfather almost, but of course Dale was a bit younger than her grandfather. Dale spoke words of wisdom here and there and seemed to be very calm and collective despite being in the middle of a zombie outbreak.

"Come and meet the others." Glenn opened the door and grabbed a couple bags as he did so. Elle followed behind and Dale followed behind her. She bit down on her lip and held on to the strap of her backpack as she exited the trailer. Tightly grabbing it, she kept her eyes downward until she felt people moving towards them.

The first person to approach them was a tall man with dark hair. He had on a cap that had the word 'cop' written across it. His shirt was a bit tighter than needed to be, but showed off his muscles and well-toned figure. Elle's stomach went into a silent knot looking at his intimidating and power stature. She defined him as a good looking man, but at this point she thought everyone looked good to her as they were not decomposing. As he was in front of her, she though she recognized him. Perhaps she had seen him before at her work. Being a lawyer, she saw cops in passing all the time from various towns grabbing paper work.

_Maybe he's one of the ones I'd stare at._ She thought to herself, having a sudden flashback to her at the courthouse in her office with the shades open so she would see the officers come in and grab papers from the secretary. She would often spend more than needed time staring, and would then judge the officers looks with her coworkers who too would be indulging in the same activity.

"The name's Shane, where you from?" He shook her hand.

"Elle and I'm from a town 'bout three miles south." She returned his hand shake. His hands were rough and masculine. She wasn't going to ask him if she met him before, as she thought it would come out sounding a bit odd and he would never remember a couple lawyers eyeing officers that entered her county courthouse.

"Well, Elle from three miles south, welcome to our group." He gave a small smile and removed the hat on his head. He wiped the sweat from his forehead, before placing the hat back over his curly hair. "Must ask you, do you got any supplies that might come in handy? Any weapons?"

A woman and a little boy came up to Elle and smiled "Lori and my son Carl."

She patted her son on the shoulder, and looked to Shane. She had long brown hair that wildly cascaded down past her chest. She pushed it behind her back and placed her hands on her hips. Her entire body was fragile looking, and as Elle eyed her arms the thought of being able to easily snap her bones in half occurred. She wondered if her body was normally like that or the lack of food and overload of stress did it to her.

"Nice to meet y'all and…I got food and water that'll last 'bout a week, got a baseball bat, and a pistol, but it only got four rounds in it. Nothing too fancy. Planning on saving them for when I need it." Elle wiped the sweat of her forehead that caused her light blond hair to stick to her skin. "Sorry I don't got a lot."

"It's okay." Shane replied. "It's good that you're with us now though. Safer in numbers than in wanderers. We gotta set up camp. Why don't you help Lori make her tent. Sorry to say we don't have any spare beddings in the tents. Might have to sleep in the RV on the floor for the time being," Shane looked to Dale.

"I got a couple extra blankets and pillows you could use. Only thing is when people have to go to the bathroom they have to step over you." Dale said.

"It's okay. Anything is better than the woods." She laughed, absently rubbing the side of her arm running over the cuts, bug bites, and scrapes she had collected from sleeping on sticks and leaves.

"I know this whole thing seems unrealistic but we got a good group of people with us right now. I'm a police officer too, if that throws you any comfort." Shane gave a hopeful look.

"I noticed your hat," She pointed up at his hat.

"Oh." He laughed removing it again and looking at it. "Barely remember its written on this ole thing."

Just then two men walked by them, one with a gun and the other with a large crossbow. Both were wearing sleeveless shirts and by the time Elle noticed them, they already had their backs to them walking towards the woods, so she did not manage to get a good look. The one with the gun turned his head towards them.

"Picking up strays on the side of the road eh?" His eyes traveled up and down her figure slowly, purposely to be noticed by everyone. "At least you got a looker this time 'round." He laughed and looked at Elle while licking his lips. He was a rather ugly bald man that reminded her of the hicks in her town that would sit at the gas station and whistle at any female that would walk by. "We gonna go get us some dinner." He winked at her, before turning his head back in the direction he was walking.

They walked into the woods leaving Elle with a look of confusion on her face.

_Uh…_

"The hell?" She said out loud.

"That's Merle that talked to you." Dale said. "The other one that you didn't see is his brother Daryl. Steer clear of them and let them do their thing. They get us food and are good at hunting, but Merle is-….Well you will see once he's around camp again. He's not very nice."

"And he has a thing for blondes." A fellow blond walked over. She appeared to be in her thirties. There was another girl, also blonde, younger than Elle, who she presumed to be her sister. "I'm Andrea and this is my sister Amy. Just ignore anything Merle says to you, and don't ever be alone with him. He will try to make a move. Especially when he's drunk. Learned that the hard way."

"I'll keep that in mind." Elle rubbed her neck uncomfortably.

"Well let's get that tent up." Lori said, and Elle followed behind her.

The entire group remained silent while putting up the tents, making the fire pits, scouting the area and other various tasks Shane had told them to do. Elle figured Shane was the unspoken leader of the group. Being an officer of the law also probably helped his gain to power over the group. Although badges meant nothing anymore.

Once everything appeared to be set up, the group gathered around the fire pit as the sun was starting to make an orange and red mixture appear in the sky around the mountain it was starting to hide behind. Shane opened a few cans of beans and began to cook them over the fire. Carol's husband and Jim were the only ones over by their tents chatting away from the group. Elle sat between Glenn and Amy.

"So, how'd you come to be on the side of the road Elle?" Dale asked, once a moment of conversation break occurred.

"Oh…I just was walking is all." She replied, giving him a smile.

"No you know what I mean. How'd you get there?" He pried. "I was vacationing across country when this outbreak happened. Met those two when their car broke down," He pointed at Amy and Andrea.

"Thank god you picked us up. Amy was convinced she could fix our car, and who knows how long we would have been sitting there, till the damn thing started." Andrea lightly nudged Amy giving a small laugh.

"Hey, I watched dad fix our truck all the time." Amy raised her voice slightly, but laughed.

"Yeah but this wasn't a truck and dad used welding tools." She teased.

Elle laughed and leaned back on her hands, letting her legs out straight in front of her. "Well, I was originally in my town when the outbreak happened. Then, when I got separated from my friends, I just started heading towards the city. Sleeping in houses and the woods. Livin' off a nature and what not."

"What did you do before this?" Glenn asked.

"I was lawyer at my city's court house."

"I was a civil rights lawyer." Andrea's posture straightened up and she smiled at her. "What did you specialize in?"

"Civil cases, nothing like murder or big crimes. Just theft, tax aversions, stuff like that." Elle didn't know if it was just the common career path Andrea had or just the way she acted, but Elle liked the two sisters right off the bat.

"You really don't like saying your town name, now do you?" Shane teased while removing the beans from the fire and handing out bowls to everyone.

"Don't matter now, does it? It's up in ruins from when the army attacked." Elle scrunched her nose up in displeasure at the smell of the beans. Shane started to pass the pot in the circle, giving it to Lori and Carl even before himself. "Where I live is up in ruins, and where I grew up a couple miles more south is probably burnt down too."

"Guess you're right. The armies tore up our town. Saw it happen with my own eyes. And if you were 'round earlier you'd a saw that Atlanta was being bombed, just near a month ago." Shane's voice dropped.

"I guess everyone got scared….Blind sited by fear to see what was living and what was dead." Elle sighed and gathered her knees up and rested her head on the top of them.

Glenn passed her a plate that had been circulating around the circle slowly. On it held baked beans, something she was not too fond of. She scooped it into her bowl regardless and began to pick at it. She passed the bowl to her right, handing it to Amy who appeared to have the same reaction as her.

_What a strange day it's been….._

The group began talking separately and Elle took the moment to ask Glenn in a low voice. "Is Shane Lori's husband?"

Glenn shifted uncomfortably as he finished the mouthful of beans. "Lori and Carl lost their dad. He was in a coma when the outbreak happened." He dropped his eyes, before raising them again, "Was the sheriff, and got shot in an accident. Shane was their dad's best friend. He's helping out Lori and Carl right now. It's really sad."

"It is…" Elle's voice faded at the end as if she was going to say more. She took another spoonful of beans. "I like Lori and Carl. They seem nice."

"Yeah everyone here is nice, except a select few. Carol's husband for example…He-….He hurts her." Glenn looked down, breaking eye contact.

Elle's face began to burn, "No one stops him?"

"It's not our place and Carol doesn't tell anyone. But I overheard Andrea and Amy talking about Carol's bruises."

"He doesn't hurt their daughter does he?" Elle whispered, looking at Sophia who was across the fire diagonally from her.

"Don't think so." Glenn tried to sound hopeful.

"That's-…a difficult situations. Anyone goes up to him, he'll take it out on her. I understand." Elle, sighed and put her now empty bowl down on the ground in front of her.

"I wish I could do something." Glenn looked to Elle.

"This world is about surviving now…Can't get involved in people's problems." Elle's tone dropped. "You try to fix everything, it will only bite yah in the ass."

Just then a whistle came from the woods and out emerged two figures. From the loud southern voice coming from one of them, it was easy to tell it was the Dixon brothers returning from their hunt.

"Got us some squirrels to cook for tomorrow." Merle yelled. "Whatever the hell y'all got on that fire ain't gonna compare."

Andrea gave a disgusted look to the fire at the thought of eating squirrels. "Ugh…."

The two walked into their tent for a moment, which Glenn and Dale had set up for them. Then they walked over to the fire, grabbing a bowl from Shane and pouring themselves beans.

It was then Elle got a good look at the other Dixon brother Daryl. He was certainly not bald and ugly like Merle was, but everything about him screamed southern white hunter boy redneck that grew up in a trailer. Caked in dirt and sweat head to toe, he had a head of medium brown hair that swept over his forehead from the sweat of his hunt. His muscles, though not as big as Merle's were evident from his sleeveless shirt. Fire light was causing shadows upon and putting emphasis on each inward curve of his arm muscle, making them look even bigger than they probably were in the sunlight. His facial hair was a goatee with bits of five o clock shadow and dirt covering the rest of his face.

Her eyes went down to the ground once more, to avoid being caught staring. She looked around at the rest of the group for a moment. Jacqui and T-Dog were chatting about something and laughing. Lori was holding Carl with an arm around his shoulder, staring at the fire. Elle's eyes met hers and they exchanged a small smile.

Her eyes panned over Daryl once more and she noticed that he looked wild and his eyes seemed like two slits as he looked down at his food and silently ate next to his brother. They both sat near Shane across the fire, Daryl was seated in a way that Elle could only see him if she leaned forward to look over Dale and Glenn.

Merle unfortunately was across from Elle and she made eye contact with him.

Leaving her mind now was Daryl's looks, and now entering was the fact Merle was his brother. Although she hadn't heard a word out of Daryl's mouth, she hoped he wasn't a carbon copy of Merle. Merle seemed already the louder, outspoken, and rude one, but Shane said to leave them _both_ alone. Obviously the red flags of Daryl just had not been shown out in the open to her yet.

"Ran into a couple walkers now didn't we?" Merle said, with a mouth full of food. Elle's eyes did not miss the way his eyes flickered over her once again.

"Ugly sons a bitches." Daryl spoke for the first time that Elle heard. He held a southern accent even more so than hers, with grammar that would make any English teacher cry. The two talked in the way her father used to, improper and extremely southern. She talked without considering her grammar for a long time, but being in a professional setting as a lawyer, a toned down proper tone was needed and trained into her blood throughout her college years.

"They ain't close to camp are they?" Shane asked concerned.

"Naw, they far out there. We almost ended up back at Atlanta for our hunt." Daryl spoke too with a mouth full of food.

"I'm going to stay up all night on watch." Shane said.

"You're going to be too tired too." Lori looked at him worried.

"Don't you worry 'bout me Lori. I'll be just fine."

"You could use the top of my trailer." Dale chimed in. "I'm sure it's a good view point. If you get too tired, I'll switch with you."

Shane gave a nod and went to his tent for a little to grab his gun. "Don't worry about that."

Elle looked up and accidently made eye contact once again with Merle. The moment she saw his lips part to speak while looking at her-

_Great…here we go…_

"So we just gonna pick up strays on the side o' the road all the time now?" Merle chuckled. "What's your name girlie?"

"Elle…" She responded, not breaking eye contact with him trying to stand her ground.

"She isn't a stray. She's a human being just like everyone else here." Lori stated. "We help out anyone that needs it."

"Just another mouth to feed. You keep helping any sucker you see walking, we're gonna have to choose who we gonna let starve first." Merle let out a 'pffft' noise and looked at Elle once more. "What skill you got that could repay me for feeding your blond ass?"

His tongue traveled across his lips as his eyes traveled down her figure once more.

_What an ass_

"Excuse me-…"

"Shut up Merle." Andrea raised her voice. "Asked me the same question when you first met me, now shut up."

"Wells I was gonna see if I got the same fucking response as I got from you, before you interrupted my conversation now girl."

"Well this conversation should end." Lori stood up and brought Carl to their tent. "There's children here Merle, remember that."

"To hell with you women and your morals. It's the end of the fuckin' world. Nothing applies anymore." Merle threw his bowl across the camp. "And to hell with these beans."

"I woulda finished it!" Daryl looked to his brother.

"Don't matter now, it's gone!" Merle stood up. "Need my beauty rest for tomorrow. Ladies..." He put two fingers to his forehead and gave them a half of a salute.

"Gonna have to never wake up at that rate." Elle mumbled to Glenn and Andrea.

They laughed a bit and finished their food. Daryl seeing that the attention shifted back to the group and less in his direction since Merle left got up silently and went to their tent to sleep.

"Daryl doesn't seem as bad Merle." Elle pointed out after he left.

"He's much smarter than he lets on." Dale said while cleaning up the dishes around the fire. "But he's still a Dixon and really just follows his older brother. Whatever upbringing they had sure caused them to miss a lesson or two on manners. They both just get angry all the time."

"Well at least he doesn't look at all females like they are a piece of meat." Amy chimed in, making a disgusted noise in her throat.

"Seems more interested in squirrels from how long we've been around him." Jim said sitting down by the fire. Carol's husband directed with a clicking noise to Carol to follow him to their tent. She silently got up and took Sophia with her.

Elle went over to the RV with Dale. He handed her a couple blankets and a pillow. "I know it won't be comfortable but…"

"It's fine." She smiled and took the bundle from his hands. "Trust me. It's more than enough."

Sleeping was difficult at first, not for the comfort, but because normally she would never be able to sleep when she was off on her own. She'd climb a tree and stay awake and alert in the darkness of the woods until exhaustion took over. Any noise she'd hear in the pitch black would keep her on her toes. Now laying on the RV floor, the only noise she would hear was the snoring of Glenn just a little ways down from her.

_There's someone on watch. I'm as safe as I could be here…_

"Sleep okay?" Dale asked her as she emerged from the RV. Elle's head snapped towards the noise, until realizing Dale was standing on the roof, "Thought, I woke you when I stepped over you."

"Slept just fine, thanks for asking." She placed a cupped hand above her eyes to block out the sun while looking up at him. "Anything going on?"

"I think they are making Glenn go into town today alone for supplies. The brothers are off to hunt again, I think."

_Sending them all off to do the dangerous stuff_, She thought to herself. _What the hell everyone else supposed to do?_

Elle went over to the rest of the group that was scattered around the fire pit. The Dixon's were packing up their hunting gear, Lori and Carl were going through their bags, Amy and Andrea were gathering up a pile of fire word, and T Dog and Jacqui were tending to a small cut Sophia had gotten on her leg.

"Maybe we'll find a big ass deer today." Daryl grabbed his crossbow off the back of their truck, taking a moment to secure the various ropes he had attached to himself, "Cook us some venison."

"Yeah and maybe we'll find that hooker dad always brought home in the woods too." Merle threw his backpack off the bed of the truck he was seated in. He closed up the back of the truck, and bent down to tie his shoe.

"Shut up Merle, was just saying is all." The younger Dixon snapped, throwing the rag he had in his hands at him. "Gonna be living off squirrels rest of our damn lives."

"Morning." Andrea greeted Elle as she spotted her walking towards the fire pit. She patted the log next to her motioning her to sit.

Elle sat down and leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees. "Morning, how'd y'all sleep?"

"Alright." Amy sighed, "Thought I heard things in the woods though and was up for a good hour."

"Just me takin' a piss is all." Merle yelled over to Amy, butting in on the conversation. "Gonna ask me, how I slept sweet thing?"

Lori looked up from chatting with Carl to roll her eyes. "Come on Carl, go play with Sophia, I gotta go talk to Shane."

Elle looked over to Merle feeling annoyed by him already, "Obviously not well enough if it was intended on being beauty rest."

Merle considered what she said before laughing. "Feisty one aren'tcha?" He raised his practically invisible brows, eyes glinting briefly, "How 'bout you come watch me hunt. I'll impress yah with my hand eye coordination." He took his gun and mocked aiming at something, before looking back at her with a grin

Elle's stomach twitched but she remembered to keep her cool, _He wants a reaction from you._

"Uh-…I'd come along to hunt. Not to watch." She straightened up in her seat.

"You'd get in the way," Daryl spoke up. "Don't need no women out doing a man's job."

"Don't want you to chip a nail there girlie." Merle added in, showing off his yellowed teeth in a smile that caused the hair on the back of her neck to stand up.

"We ain't taking yah." Daryl stood up, putting his crossbow over his shoulder. His eyes met Elle's for the first time and she saw a flash of danger within them.

_Already off to a great start with these two…_

"I didn't _actually _wanna go. I might get violated in the process..." She glared at Merle, while speaking. "The comments can stop any day now."

She didn't want to admit to them that she had no idea how to use a gun; it would only reinforce the thick headed Dixon brothers ideas that women were weak.

"Oh come now you'll warm up to me." Merle teased, standing up himself. "Let's go brother. Don't miss ole Merle too much ladies."

"We won't," Amy yelled to him. After they were out of earshot, she spoke again, "I don't like them."

"You're not the only one." Andrea said. "Merle really is becoming more and more of a problem each day."

"I know," Shane rubbed his chin, "But they get us food and have muscle, something we're lacking in this group. Daryl ain't as bad as Merle, but we can't ask Merle to leave cause they come as a pair."

"Well something's gotta be done. He has no respect for anyone. Merle is gonna end up attracting all the walkers around here to us. He fires his gun without thinking." Lori's voice rose. "He doesn't listen to a word you say either Shane."

"I know Lori. We just have to work with what we are given." Shane trudged off to his tent.

Elle took out a granola bar from her backpack to munch on. She was used to eating slowly, to make her small rations last longer than they should.

"Alright got the list?" Suddenly Shane appeared nearby with Glenn standing with his backpack on and a nervous look in his eyes.

"Yeah I do. I know where to go. I'll be fine." Glenn gave a hopeful smile.

Elle turned over her shoulder and met eyes with Glenn. "You sure you wanna go alone?"

"I'll be faster that way. When we were in towns nearby, I would go off on my own a lot and get supplies."

"Good luck Glenn. Be safe." Lori said to him, standing at Shane's side.

Glenn gave his nod of acknowledgment and climbed into a truck nearby to head to the city.

"Wanna help me with getting fire wood?" T Dog asked Andrea and Elle. He handed the two axes, "Dale's got all sorts of tools, but these are the only axes he's got. Don't break 'em."

The three went along the edge of their camp and chopped at random tree branches and gathered fallen sticks. They created a pile nearby the fire pit and spent the time talking about movies.

_What is there really to talk about at the end of the world?_

She took another swing at the tree she stood in front of. Its branch was nearly off, just a couple good hacks would do the trick.

_The past_.

The talk of movies made them miss the simple pleasures in life, and most of all _electricity_. Andrea and T Dog started to talk about missing a couple of household items they used to have. The talk went from meaningless missing, to suddenly very depressing. Amy joined in there talking, and it started to go very down hill. The sadness in their voices, made Elle feel the need to snap them out of their states of mind.

_If they spend all this time thinking about sad stuff they ain't going to live right…_

"No good talking about what we miss. It will only make us sad." Elle said with a bundle of wood in her hands. "We spend time feeling sorry for ourselves, we will lose hope."

Elle did not like to get emotional. Feeling sad and sorry for one's self was something she avoided at all cost. Going down that emotional road would lead to nothing but trouble. With the amount of death she had seen in front of her eyes, she tried to become cold to it.

"I can still dream about my computer." Andrea said, with a bit of a snarky tone, sounding as if she did not want to be lectured on what to say.

Elle did not mean to come across as rude, but again when it came to emotions she thought it was better to be cold about sad things than to start crying.

_Nothing gets solved from crying._

She learned that the hard way too.

Hours later after doing more chores to help out the camp, Elle decided to go off on her own to search for any edible plants. If for some reason she could not down squirrel, it be nice to have a backup to eat.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Dale said after she let him know where she was heading.

"I've been able to handle myself alone for a month, I can do this." Elle gave him a reassuring smile. It felt bizarre to her to have to ask for permission to go off now. Before it was, if she wanted to do something, it was done on a wim. Now being part of a group meant rules and disagreements to occur.

She'd be damned if she could not go off on her own ever.

"Don't wander too far, and take your baseball bat or something." Dale said from the roof of his RV, "It's gonna be night sooner than you know it. I think the brothers just came back with more squirrels."

She looked over to the Dixon tent, to see the two sitting outside of it. Daryl had a cigarette hanging from his lips, but his hands were busy skinning and cutting away into the squirrels. Merle was also smoking a cigarette but his hands were resting on his lap, doing nothing at the moment.

"I'll come back soon…Don't wanna miss dinner." She put one hand in a fist and mocked an enthused arm movement.

Grabbing her bat from the RV, she wandered off to the left of camp and quickly left the eyesight of Dale. Looking at the ground as she walked, she quietly kept her guard up listening to her surroundings. Eventually the low chatter from camp was out of her earshot and everything seemed like it was two days ago when she was off on her own.

_The sound of nothing._

Couple birds here and there.

But in retrospect nothing human.

After searching for around thirty minutes, she came across wild blackberries.

_Yes!_

She placed her backpack on the ground and kneeled in front of the wild bushes carrying her prize. She carefully picked the berries placing them in a circular tin she had in her backpack. There was enough to allow everyone at camp to have a helping. Inspecting the one in her hand, she popped it into her mouth soaking in the juices that lay on her tongue. She crunched down on it, slowly swishing it around her mouth keeping the taste as long as she could.

_So gooooooood._

Nothing really could be thought, other than how amazing it tasted in her mouth. She sat there taking in the moment, sitting with her back to a tree.

_Cautious._

Surviving alone, she wasn't good at hunting. She never killed animals. The gun she picked up, she did not have the slightest idea how to use, but thought if she ever got that desperate, she'd figure it out. She was excellent at tracking, gathering, and most importantly hiding. She could climb any tree and make it into her safety net. When the army was around towns she took refuge in, she could hide from them very well. It was not a skill she had, but most certainly one she developed. Her tracking was from her experience on working her father's farm. She could find natural goodies very well and also see where someone went off running in the woods too, as often her little sister would wander off too far.

_No…Don't go thinking about the past_. She thought to herself, plopping another blackberry in her mouth. _Remember what it does to a person. Just gotta stay in the now. No need to think about childhood stuff that don't matter now._

Picking the bushes dry, she placed the tin in her bag and headed back to camp. She got only a couple yards from where she was seated when she heard the crunching of leaves. Without even thinking, she crouched down, looking towards the direction of the noise. She knelt behind a tree and looked through an overgrown thicket.

On the other side of the thicket, was a walker clawing at a tree. Towards the top of the tree, was a small squirrel minding its own business, walking along the branches unphased by the half decaying corpse trying to eat it. Elle took a moment to consider her options. Killing it seemed to be the only option at this point.

_One less walker around to worry about the better. _

She looked around once more to see if there were any more of this creatures friends walking about, but the entire forest seemed empty. The sun was starting to set even more, and the lighting of her surroundings was starting to become a bit dim. Trying to make the least amount of noise as possible, she stayed low to the ground as she walked around the thicket. The walker still had its back to her, making snapping noises as the animal in the tree was enjoying himself a bath by nibbling on its own fur; not realizing it was giving the walker a show.

Inching closer to it attempting to be as quiet as possible, Elle when deemed close enough, stood straight up and gripped the baseball bat tightly in her hands. She lined up the swing and let a low whistle escape her lips to get the walker's attention. It turned around quickly at the noise.

SMACK!

She swung the bat directly at the walkers face, her hands vibrating at the impact with the creature. A loud squishing noise occurred and a crunch as the walker's nose was the main impact with the bat. It fell to the ground at the unexpected force, and Elle continued to beat the walker with her metal bat. Each hit caused the sound of decaying skin and bone crunching and squishing to echo in the forest. Blood splattered up off the bat and on to her clothes whenever she swung the bat up away from the creature to gain momentum. The creature made moaning noises as she kept slamming the metal into its face. Brain bits started oozing out the sides of its head where large holes were. A few more smacks caused one of the eyes to fall out and be crushed under Elle's mighty swings. Although the creature was now clearly dead, she continued to attack it viciously letting out a grunt of anger towards it.

"You ugly fuck." She gritted between her teeth, standing straight up to look over the mess in front of her. Blood stained the forest floor and her weapon. Seeing her bat soaked in blood, she sighed.

_What a mess._

She walked away from the body and sat on the ground. She took a couple leaves from the ground and started to attempt to use them to wipe the blood from her bat. It worked only a little bit, removing the brain bits and other various organ pieces clinging to the metal, but the blood was only smeared more on it. Her clothes had blotches of blood on them, as well as a couple droplets on her face. She wiped the blood on her face with her hand, not knowing all that did as well was just smear it.

Originally not going to inform the group there was a walker nearby, she deemed she would have to as the blood on her shirt was not going to disappear magically.

"What the hell happened?" Dale asked, spotting Elle walk back into camp.

"Oh my god, is that yours?" Jacqui asked, meeting Elle just outside the RV. Shane got up from where he was seated to address Elle as well.

She scanned the campsite for a moment, seeing everyone was starting to sit around the fire. Lori was helping Carl with a book he was reading, Carol's family was seated around their own fire, T Dog was adding more logs to the main fire, and the Dixons were cooking their hunt over the fire. Everyone had looked up at the slightly blood covered Elle. She met eyes with Daryl and Merle first, then looked back to the three people in front of her.

"No. It was a walker's," She kept her voice low, not wanting anyone else to hear. "Was only one loner, wouldn't be too worried. I took care of 'em."

Dale gave her a perplexed look, "Here come over here, I got water we can wash you up with."

He lead her over to the side of the RV where he had a bucket of water and a rag, "Was using this for my forehead when I was standing up there in the heat, but clean off your bat and face with it."

"Thanks Dale," She took the damp cloth and started with her face and fingers. The cloth slowly started to become stained red, and became the natural color of it once she dipped her bat into the water and cleaned it off with the rag.

"You should have had someone with you," He said as she dumped the bucket of dirty water out, "You could have been killed."

"Don't worry about me Dale. I said I could handle myself and I did. The son of a bitch is dead." She gave him a small smile almost sick smile. She could tell he was the most cautious of the group, and every group did need someone like Dale around. He was their reality check, but Elle was certainly not used to having someone be worried for her safety, especially someone she just met. "I can handle myself."

"Too much confidence-" He started, but she cut him off.

"I know Dale. I am confident but not stupid. If there were more, I'd have ran." She paused. " I appreciate the concern though. Really, I do."

_Don't wanna sound mean to him, he's just overly worried._

She liked Dale, but she could already foreshadow that he was going to be worried if any living breathing person walked out of his eye sight.

"Come on, I got something for everyone around the fire." Elle continued to smile at him, and walked over to the fire and sat on a log next to Glenn and Amy. "Made it back okay?"

Glenn smiled at Elle and rubbed his neck, "Yeah, I got us some food and water bottles. Couple medical supplies-"

"But was the trip safe? No close calls?" Elle pressed.

"Ah-….For the most part. Towards the end, I had to run to the truck and speed off to lose a couple geeks, but I stayed hidden for the most part."

"Someone else could go next time." She offered to him.

"No…I know my way around the city the best. Don't think anyone else can do." Glenn shifted uncomfortably.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." His answer went against his tone. Being asked to go into the city was a big risk, but he was not hyping it up to be one. She did not know Glenn well, but from the way his body language was being displayed in front of her, she pegged him to be a push over. He would do anything asked of him or be taken advantage of by other group members. . There was no concrete evidence to back this thought she was having up, but time would tell and she'd see how many times he would go into the city without anyone else going with him or offering.

"Hey I got something for everyone." Elle reached inside her backpack, "Found these in the forest. Figured it go well with whatever we are eating."

Merle and Daryl glanced over at this, looking up from the meat they were cooking on the fire. The looks on their faces were stoic and blank, even after she opened her tin to reveal blackberries for everyone. A couple people made the sounds of approval and a few thanks were thrown around here and there to Elle and Glenn and even to the Dixon brothers who were cooking the food.

Plates were passed out in the circle, carrying squirrel meat that seemed charred and kept on the fire a bite longer than needed. The group picked at the food, with the Dixons eating the meat much faster than everyone else due to being used to the taste and texture. To Elle, the food was not bad at all considering it was the first time she had cooked meat in a month, so she could look past the odd burnt flavor to it. The only one really having trouble with it was Carl and Sophia who didn't like the thought of eating something they thought was 'furry and cute'.

They all chatted around the fire, Elle taking an even more liking to Glenn and Amy than before. They seemed to just click very well right off the bat.

A familiar smell waved through her nostrils and she looked looked across the fire and through the flames, sat Daryl and Merle taking drags off their cigarettes. If she could only have a drag-

_No not an option._ She had quit for a solid two years, but with the current state of the world, lung cancer was a risk she was willing to take. The smell of second hand smoke filled her nostrils and her teeth clamped together at the urge of sweet nicotine running through her veins.

_No do not ask them. At least not tonight. You are already off to a bad start with them, grubbing for smokes won't make it better._

To distract herself from her hidden away addiction, she started to offer the blackberries to the people around her. Everyone happily took a handful. She even let Carl and Sophia take two handfuls since they were promised extra berries if they ate all their squirrel meat. Lori gave Elle a thanks as she took her share for helping her get the children to eat. Elle stood up to reach the remaining people who were out of reach to offer the fruits too.

She gave some to Ed and Carol, trying her best to keep a pleasant smile when she made eye contact with Ed.

_Bastard._

Keeping a straight face, she went up to the Dixon brothers and held out the tin. "Blackberries?"

Daryl took a handful and gave her a small nod, not making eye contact. It was then, Elle noticed a small mole on the side of Daryl's face, hidden slightly within his goatee. She focused on that, as he wasn't making eye contact with her. Oddly, she thought it was fitting on his face. She then looked to Merle who on the other hand could never cease to keep his mouth shut as he grabbed a huge helping of the fruit.

"Well, little miss Betty Crocker herself is feeding me. Gonna sit here and place these in my mouth sugar?" He slyly smirked at her, blowing smoke purposely in her face. Her body tensed up, at the smell of delicious nicotine and other toxins inches from her. Her heart rate rose as she craved for more of the sinful smell. She took a large gulp, and bit her tongue.

_No. _

The look in his eyes showed he was on more than cigarette fumes. There was a daze to his whole figure and his body seemed slanted.

_He's a druggie. Perfect._ She mentally cringed. She quickly stole a glance at Daryl- he seemed to be normal, but she could not tell accurately if he was on whatever drug Merle was clearly on.

"I'm all set." She went back to the other side of the fire and sat down to eat the remaining berries for herself. She was not in the mood to get into a battle of words with Merle.

_A thank you would have been nice._

Elle took note while eating her berries of, the way Lori and Shane looked at one another. The way her eyes would light up and her smile was more than just a depressing hopeful one whenever they looked at one another-

_They are more than just friends_, She thought to herself. She'd seen those looks before, and experienced it herself once too. _Or if they are just friends, they won't just be friends for long._

It was information she felt no urge to share with anyone. She was good at reading people's body language, and perhaps it was something she'd prefer to keep to herself as a talent.

Slowly everyone went to their tents, leaving the plates stacked in a pile by the fire. It was T Dog's night to watch on the RV, giving Shane the night off. Eventually it was just Elle, Merle, Daryl, and Glenn around the fire.

"Where'd you find that shit anyways blondie?" Merle asked her, as he finished his last berry.

"A bush 'bout thirty minutes that way," She pointed off in the direction behind her.

"Women can git lost in the woods alone. How 'bout next time you ask good ole Merle here to chaperone you." His chuckle transformed into a coughing hacking fit.

"I'll be fine by myself. Was today wasn't I?" She kept her tone lowered, feeling too tired to get into an argument still.

"Kill'd a walker I hear? Lucky swing?" He blew smoke out across the fire. The glow from the embers lit his face, causing him to appear almost skeleton like. He was a frightening looking creature for still having air in his lungs.

"Keep it down," Elle raised both her hands up flat, fanning downward to mimic the lowering of volume,  
"Not everyone knows there was a walker 'round here again. If we all lived off a' luck, we'd be dead now wouldn't we?" She proposed, "Naw, I took that walker out not by luck."

Glenn stood up, "I'm going to sleep. G'night everyone."

_He's so polite. _

"Why don't you stay a while blondie? Or you gonna go tuck the chink in for beddy bye time?" He laughed hoarsely, lighting up another cigarette.

Glenn's body twitched at the obvious offending comment, but kept his mouth shut as he turned on his heel and walked towards the RV. She looked back at the rednecks and pursed her lips.

"I'm actually tired myself." She looked up and made eye contact surprisingly with Daryl this time. The lesser of two evils at this point, looked to be less intimidating than his now obviously racist brother.

_Well they are brothers, they are most likely both racist…_

"That floor gittin' uncomfortable yet? I got enough room in my bed fer yah." Merle kept pestering, as she stood up.

"Fuck off, yah pig." She finally said, raising her voice and turned to head off to bed She stopped with her hand on the RV latch, before turning her head towards the fire, "Honestly, you don't know the first thing 'bout treatin' someone decently."

"To hell with you then!" Merle yelled after her, watching as she slammed the door to the RV shut with more force than needed. "She'll wake up the 'hole fuckin' camp with that attitude. She almost as worse as Andrea. Good for nothin' pair o' tits."

"You're settin' the bitch off." Daryl said as he lit another cigarette. "Hate to break it to you bro, but I think she ain't that into you."

"To hell with these whores 'round here," He hacked up a bit, and then spit on the ground. "And don't be telling me nothing 'bout these women Darlina. You don't know the first thing 'bout talkin' to these girls. My chances with them be a whole lot bigger than yours ever 'onna be."

"Shut up Merle." He spit as well, raising his voice and throwing his empty plate to the ground.

"Don't be tellin' me to shut up, ya worthless shit," He stuck a finger rather close to Daryl's face as if to lecture him. "All my life, I've been tryin' make a man outta you, and now look. Yah got three blonde bitches walkin' 'round this camp. Man up and fuck one o' them already. It's painful to look at how pathetic you are."

Daryl stood up and kicked the plate that he had thrown on the ground, sending it flying across the camp. "I told you to shut yah fuckin' mouth old man. I ain't worthless, yah meth head."

Merle stood up as well, and stood inches from Daryl. "What I offend your white ass? I ain't no meth head!"

Daryl shoved Merle backwards, letting out an angry grunt. Merle then shoved back at him muttering some curse word. Daryl took a swing at Merle, who threw his arm up to block it. Merle and Daryl ended up then on the ground, with Daryl in a head lock, and Merle choking him tightly laughing.

"Don't upset the bull, if yah can't handle the horns, little brother." He tightened his grip, with Daryl throwing punches up towards Merle's head to try and escape from the position he was in, "What I tell you 'bout tryin' to make a man outta you. Been tryin' near thirty years and still you's always second best tah me."

He let go of Daryl throwing him to the ground. He stood up straight and stretched out his arms, before reaching in his pocket and pulling out a plastic bag of white powder. "I'm gonna go have me some more of this. Pick up this shit Darlina."

Merle kicked his own plate and pointed to the area around them. During their short brawl a couple things had fallen over and the stack of plates had been strewn about in the dirt.

Daryl stood there alone, watching his brother walk along the edge of the forest to get even more high than he already was. Daryl looked down at the plates, and instead of picking them up, he took his rage out on them. Kicking the plastic wear and then bending over to grab one of the smaller logs used to sit on, he threw it over his head.

Elle and Glenn sat in the RV watching from the window, hidden by the darkness. Although they both did not_ hear_ what was said, they did _see _the fighting.

"Shit…" Elle said as they watched Daryl head to his tent, his whole body tense.

"Their arguing has been getting worse each day." Glenn said, sitting at the table, now looking to Elle. "I bet they didn't spend a lot of time together before this happened, and now being around each other every day is getting to them."

"Merle is a complete asshole." Elle, scooted off the seat and went to snuggle herself in her sleeping bag. "They both got anger issues."

"See that's-," Glenn went for his sleeping bag as well which was in the hallway of the RV as well. He slept on the other end of it, with his feet facing her head, "-why we don't wanna ever upset them. Those two may fight and attack each other but they won't kill one another cause they are family. One of us upset them, especially Merle, who knows if he'll pull a gun. Shane doesn't think he will, but I'd rather be cautious."

"I'd like him to pull a gun on me," Elle smirked even though Glenn couldn't see, "I'd love to pop a round right where it'd hurt 'em."

She pictured it in her head and that was the lovely thought that she drifted to sleep to.

* * *

I would love if you could take the time to review good sir or miss. It's really the only thing that keeps me going cause it makes me see you want more. I'd like to thank my Beta Syd for helping me see where my errors are and giving me suggestions. My chapters may take a week or so. I edit them a lot, and always want more than 10,000 words per chapter so when you guys get something to read, it actually will take you a while to read and not just five minutes. With that in mind, enjoy your day reader thanks for reading and I'll be updating soon.


	2. Cigarettes

Watched another interview by Norman on Daryl if he had a romance it would be quote "premature, don't know what I'm doing, awkward. Probably turn into a comedy." Of course I'm not going to write eventually like him all "I don't know what boobs are." But, awkward. Awkward is always awesome.** Side note**: When characters talk or speak in order to keep the southern accent, words will be purposely misspelled. Grammar Police try not to take notice.

This chapter actually has the beginnings of Daryl and Elle interactions. I feel like before Merle goes missing, Daryl is more of an ass as he hasn't developed his character and seen he has a place in the group. Enjoy.

* * *

Something was shaking her shoulder lightly. By the time she registered the movement, her fist flew up in the air as she jolted up in a startle.

_WALKER!_

"AH!" Glenn's hands flew up to his face in pain, as he stumbled back into a kneel.

Elle paused, her knuckles were tingling. Her mouth fell open upon realizing what she just done, "Glenn!"

"Ugh- is this how you say good morning?" He held the side of his face with one hand, gripping the side of the table with the other before pushing up to a stand. Removing his hand from his face, she saw no blood, but a decent sized mark with obvious red coloring underneath the skin.

She sprung up from her makeshift bed to become level with Glenn. She cupped her hands over her nose and mouth, "Oh my god, I'm so sorry." The words were muffled through her hands.

_Damn it._

"I'm not used to being woken up. I thought you were a walker or something. I forgot where I was,-" She stopped herself from embarrassed rambling.

He raised a hand up, and she lowered hers from her face, "Next time, I'll just poke you with a stick or something jeez."

Glenn went into the small bathroom and inspected his face in the mirror, opening his mouth and making weird faces as he eyed over his skin. "Awh, man is this gonna bruise?"

_Yes it will._

"No….Shouldn't," She remarked, standing in the threshold watching him. She couldn't help the small laugh coming out of her, and tried to cough before looking at him with the most innocent doe eyes she could muster.

He looked over at her, "You pack quite a punch! It's- Oh it is gonna bruise of course." He rubbed at the mark, which started to have a small hint of purple appearing.

"Again-….Really sorry 'bout that." Her southern twang came out more sharply, "I could…I could try and find more berries out in the woods today and give you half my find?"

Glenn touched his skin one last time around the increasingly red mark just under his eye, and then turned to face her, "It was an accident, it's okay." He gave her a half a smile looking down towards the floor.

She suddenly felt uncomfortable with their close proximity as the bathroom was only large enough for one person to fit in properly, "No I insist. I was going to go off anyways to see if I could find something more to eat out there, and whatever I find I'll give you a lot of, cause…well…for that," She pointed at his face, "Besides, you risk your tail going off to the city, you deserve a little something extra."

She tried to give him a half smile, but it came out awkwardly and slanted. He looked up at her and returned the smile, evidently feeling the same off beat in the air. "Sorry again 'bout your face. Next time, just wake me by yelling or somethin'."

"Note taken." His lips parted to a fully smile, and with that she pressed her lips together and gave a small nod, before turning on her heel to gather up her blankets to put in storage.

"Whatchu wake me up for anyways?" She threw everything into an overhead cupboard. She woke up about three times during the night, not used to sleeping for a full eight hours. When she was off on her own, she'd often sleep in two or three hour intervals.

"Landry day." He said, emerging fully from the bathroom and watching her.

_Wait what?_

"What?" She looked to him.

"We all are going to the quarry- well, most of us. To- uh, you know, wash all the clothes. The rest up here are going to keep watch and collect more firewood."

Elle's body felt more itchy than normal with little prickles running through her skin at the thought of a huge body of water sitting there, just waiting to be felt by her dirt caked skin. Bathing was not common during the end of the world, and any ounce of water she could use to drench herself in, she'd use. The far and in between times, she had access to a river while out alone, she nearly would jump in upon sight of the water.

Exiting the RV, she joined Andrea and helped her gather up piles of clothing to carry down to the quarry. Amy and Jacqui were carrying a tub and washboard filled with clothes as well. Daryl was seated eating left over squirrel he must have cooked for himself. Dale was up on watch again, looking through his binoculars at the mountain range.

"What happened to your face?" Shane asked Glenn as he walked over with his gun resting on his shoulder.

"Uh- I…"

The people around them looked over while continuing their activity.

"I accidently hit 'em." Elle, held in the now humor she felt as Shane's face formed a smirk. She ran her fingers through her currently natted hair that went just past her breasts.

"Okaaaaay," He turned around walking towards Lori, and looked over his shoulder to Elle, before reaching her, "Not gonna ask."

Shane exchanged a few words with Lori, before walking past the group and nodding his head to get a move on. "You stay here Glenn with Ed and Jim. Daryl and I will keep watch of the water." Shane looked at Daryl who was packing his gear, "When's Merle gonna be back from his hunt you reckon?"

"How the hell should I know?" The redneck grumbled before grabbing his crossbow and standing.

_Wonder why Merle went off alone. Maybe because they're fighting They need time apart_. She thought and suppressed a laugh picturing them to be acting like school children fighting on a playground and then sent off to time out.

Shane lead the group, walking next to Lori and Carl. Carl kept trying to keep pace with the cop, but Lori kept tugging on the back of his shirt to keep him next to her. Carol silently walked in front of Elle. The three blondes of the group kept pace with one another and tried to get Elle in on their conversation of fishing.

"Maybe we could ask Dale to borrow his lines and go fishing soon," Amy suggested.

"I could use a good fish to eat," Andrea's eyes lit up. "You fish Elle?"

"Can't say I'm much good at it. Sounds like something you two will have to do," She shot them a smile.

Elle shot them a smile before glancing over her shoulder to see Daryl walking behind them, with his crossbow out facing downwards, just in case. He was off looking at the trees, not to notice her glance.

_The group's big about protecting each other. Good._

A little further down the path, the large body of blue water came into her eye sight, and every inch of her body urged to take a running jump off a rock into the refreshing water. She held in her urges, holding the clothes she had in her hand tighter to let out her impatience. The thought of being able to do what she wanted, when she wanted crossed her mind and her inability to do that while stuck in a group.

_Just wait._

They climbed down the path which had a bit too rough of footing for Carol. Carol almost fell, but regained her balance dropping a few articles of clothing in the process. Elle bent down to pick them up for her. They both exchanged a smile and a nod before descending down to the water.

The ladies went to the shore and placed all the clothing on the ground. They filled up the two wash tubs they had and started to get to work. Lori and Amy were the two to make faces whenever a particularly dirty piece of clothing ran through their hands as they scrubbed at them with brushes meant for cleaning dishes. Elle, Andrea, and Carol seemed unphased by the filth, not even hesitating when cleaning clothing that would be considered undergarments. Half hour into scrubbing, nearly a quarter of the clothes had stains on them that were beyond fixing. Shane was standing by the group, chatting with them while Daryl sat off on a rock far back from them. He had a rag in his hand and he was busy cleaning his arrows and crossbow.

"How often should we do this?" Amy asked, putting a shirt into the 'clean as it gets' tub that was not filled with water.

"Every couple days I suppose. Georgia heat ruins everything." Lori placed the pants she was working on in the bin.

Everyone still had the same clothes on from yesterday, Elle wishing she had something else she could change into. Her white tank top was nearly turning another color in some spots. "I'm gonna need to find more clothes."

"When Glenn runs into town tomorrow, we could add that to his list. Maybe he'll find something," Shane proposed.

"Momma always told me never trust a man to do women shopping," Amy laughed.

Elle liked Amy's attitude. Amy tried to keep the group's spirits up even with the tragic situation surrounding them. Cracking a joke here and there did not go unnoticed. Shane did not laugh, but she got a couple chuckles from the girls.

"After the black eye I gave him," Elle looked to Amy with one eye shut to block out the sun in her face, "He'll be getting me size large in everythang in neon pink, just to attract a walker to me as payback."

"Glenn ain't like that, he'll be too worried 'bout insulting you with what he picks for you. We passed through a town once and Sophia needed clothes and-" Jacqui looked to Carol to finish the story.

Carol paused a moment, hesitating before giving a smile, "-…He got her boy clothing. She was mighty upset."

They laughed and Sophia looked up from the insect her and Carl were inspecting, "Gave them to Carl," She had a wide smile on her face.

"Momma can we go swimming?" Carl asked, standing up with Sophia, "It's so hot out."

_Oh my god, kid….you are my hero._

"I don't know Carl. I don't want you two in the middle of the waters all alone," She looked up to him cupping a hand over her eyes to shield the sun. "You swim well Sophia?"

She gave a nod and a small agreeable sound from her throat, "I swam in my pool all the time."

"Big difference between a pool and this," Lori gathered up the bin of wet clothing in her hands, "Besides I gotta bring these up to camp for the drying rack."

"I'll go with them." Elle offered, "I haven't been in water for a week. I was most likely gonna go anyways."

"I'm not sure-" Lori started.

"Please mom?"

"Mom can I-" Sophia looked to her mother, who was helping Lori with the bin of wet clothing.

"Mom it's hot out! It will just be ten minutes."

"Ten minutes yeah! Not too long!"

"Pleeeeeease?"

"Alright, alright. It's okay with you Carol?" Lori looked to her clearly frustrated with the children bombarding her with begging. Carol gave a small nod. Lori placed a free hand on Carl's shoulder and made him look straight into her eyes, "Stay within eye sight of Elle. Don't jump off any high cliffs, is that understood?"

Carl gave an obedient nod and looked over to Sophia who was receiving the same talk from Carol.

"Carol and I are gonna bring these up to dry," She looked to Jacqui, Amy, and Andrea, "You guys got the other half of it?"

"Yeah, we got about another twenty minutes of work, we'll bring up the rest once we wash it all." Jacqui said while scrubbing socks against the wash board, "We'll hang this half up if you guys get us a plate ready for lunch."

"Daryl could you stay here, while I escort Lori and Jacqui back to camp?" Shane scratched the top of his while calling to the man cleaning off his crossbow.

"I didn't sign up to be damn babysitter." Daryl mumbled barely audible.

Shane took that as a yes and led his group up the trail, muttering something about stupid rednecks attitude.

Elle lead Carl and Sophia away from the women doing the rest of the laundry and over towards a large flat rock that sat by the edge of a small cliff. The height from where they were was very small, equivalent to a tiny diving board. Sophia was the only one showing a hint of fear from the height, while Carl on the other hand took a running jump off the rock before Elle could even remove her shoes properly.

"Car-" Elle looked over the edge to see Carl waving up at her with a huge smile on his face.

Elle felt a tug on her arm. A pair of hesitant eyes stared back at her.

"Sophia?" She knelt down to be eye level with her, "What's wrong?"

"I-…I'm scared to jump." Sophia mustered the courage to say.

"We could go around and walk in," Elle suggested flashing a smile while placing a hand on her shoulder.

"I wanna jump though." Sophia looked to the ground shyly, "Will you jump with me?"

"Of course," She stood up and held out a hand. Sophia took it and the two walked to the edge of the rock, "You ready?"

Sophia gave a nod and a small grin.

_This is going to feel so great. No more sticky sweat. No more dirt. Ahh, beautiful clear water._

"3…2….1." The pair jumped off, hitting the water almost immediately due to the height being so small. A rush of cool water tingled Elle's entire body made her swim to the surface with a huge grin plastered on her face. The feeling of her hair no longer sticking to her head with sweat made her dive under the water once more. Sophia started to laugh as Carl splashed water at her. They swam out to be within view of the women doing laundry. They'd look up every so often at the swimmers giving small smiles and nods.

"Remember what your momma said, don't swim far out. Just stay 'round here," Elle said as she kicked her legs up to float on her back. She stared at the clouds in the sky, every sound of the children's laughter muffled by the water lining her face and blocking her ears. Gentle kicks provided her a slow moving float within the water as she smiled and stared at the sky.

For the first time in a month, she could not be on constant alert. Wading through the water, with other pairs of eyes watching over her, she could let the gnawing feeling of anxiety leave and fill the void with relaxation. Well, as relaxed as she could muster. Her mind traveled to walkers once more, visions of body parts being torn to shreds within the mouths of rotting-

_If there's any trouble, the guys will let us know._ She shook the thoughts from her head, hiding the small frown that played on her face, by rubbing at her mouth to remove the small droplets of water that rested there.

A sudden weight submerged her legs under water and she let out a quick shriek. The smiled, relieved. Carl let out a toothy grin before he splashed water in her face

"Oh that's how we're playin eh?" Elle grinned and stood on the sandy ground underwater before leaning over and lifting Carl up from under his armpits. He let out an excited cheer as she threw him up in the air to let him hit the water again with a small splash. Once he resurfaced, he immediately splashed her laughing.

"I wanna try!" Sophia insisted, raising her arms up. Elle gave her a nod and a countdown as she placed her hands under Sophia's fragile arms. She was less rough with Sophia as she threw her backwards in the air, making sure to not let her go too high in the air. The three laughed and Elle dove forward to reach a part of the water where she wouldn't be able to touch the bottom.

Elle's bright hazel eyes scanned the observing trees swaying in the light Georgia breeze, past the women ringing out the soaked articles of clothing in their hands, and then rested on the scruffy dirty muscled arms of Daryl rubbing an arrow between a cloth in his hands. His head was raised watching the swimming as he worked. She could not tell due to the distance if he was looking at her or the children. She continued to stare over towards the redneck keeping her mouth underwater. She knew he wouldn't be able to decipher _what _she was actually looking at either. He seemed to her like a part of the scenic nature that was behind him. The other members of the camp looked out of place, but not Daryl. To her, it looked as if he belonged against the foliage and wild Georgia terrain behind him. Had it not been established he was even there, Elle was sure most wouldn't even notice him sitting on the rock. His quiet manner when no one paid any mind to him, if Merle was there he'd be shouting and hollering up a storm-…. She looked away and met eyes with Amy.

"It nice in there?" Amy yelled over.

"Try it out yourself!" Elle lifted her head completely out of the water, grinning.

Amy considered it looking to Andrea and then stood up running into the water, splashing up waves towards Elle by the time she reached her.

"Oh god!" Amy closed her eyes and sighed in pleasure "This feels wonderful!" She dove under to get entirely drenched and then ran her fingers through her hair pushing it back against her head.

Roughly ten minutes later, the four of them emerged from the water dripping onto the sand. Their clothes hung low and damp on them. Elle remembering she had nothing to change into figured she'd let the sun naturally dry her off.

_Dry off… OH SHIT!_ She looked down; sure enough her filth stained white tank top was pressed tightly to her skin dripping. Her cheeks flooded. It left nothing to the imagination and her white bra underneath was clearly visible. She pinched the fabric around her stomach between her fingers and pulled out the clothing to try and make it less revealing.

_Thought that one through well now didn't I?_

It was as if Amy read her mind, "I'm sure you could fit into something of mine. Once we get to camp we can change." Amy's eyes scanned over Elle's current situation, just due to the fact it was sort of like a train wreck. You notice and can't help but stare for a moment.

"How was it?" Jacqui smiled at them picking up the tub of remaining clothes to bring back to camp.

"Refreshing."

"Relaxing."

"Sweet!" Carl smiled.

"Let's get you back up to your mom before she starts to worry," Elle suggested.

"Race you!" Carl nudged Sophia and the two broke out into a sprint.

"Hey! Stay with us!" Andrea chased after them, slowed a bit by her tub of clothing in her hands. Jacqui quickly followed.

Elle and Amy stayed behind, grabbing the ends of their shirts and ringing out the bottom to the best of their abilities.

"Wish I had worn something else before I left my house before all the insanity. Can't tell you how cold it can get at night in this damn tank top." Elle, flatted out the fabric and then pinched at it again to keep it from clinging to her skin.

"I have a few extra shirts. You look my size," Amy eyed her over once, "Although I have big hips-"

"You're crazy, look at you!" Elle pointed to Amy's lower figure, "I'd kill for hips like yours. I got a little extra fat on my sides." She placed her hands on her hip bones looking down at herself.

"You have muscle. Don't you start calling_ that_ fat," Amy giggled.

Elle let out a yelp at the pulling sensation of something small being ripped off her back. Her hand flew up to back of her left shoulder over the irritated spot. Elle looked to Amy, who was looking slightly past her.

_Odd…_ She turned around to meet Daryl's eyes for a second before seeing a well sized leech between his fingers. She brought her hand back to the front of her to see a little bit of blood on her palm.

"We done with the damn games and swimmin' already?" He threw the leech to the ground and stomped his boot on it. He glanced up and then chewed at his thumbnail, as his eyes averted downward towards the revealing fabric clinging against Elle's skin and bra and scanned over it for less than a second. It was so quick she did not even know if it actually happened, but she knew the walk into camp would gain some stares. She silently wished Amy was wearing something white as well.

He walked past them towards camp, silently the obvious signal to get a move on.

Once he was some distance ahead of her Amy spoke with a small smirk fixed on her face, "Well, that was polite."

"Least he got the sucker off," She looked back at her shoulder, moving her skin towards her in an attempt to see the small gash left by the leech.

"Could of warned you," Amy started to walk.

"Merle better not be back," Elle changed subjects.

* * *

Elle sighed, lavishing in the feeling of fresh clothes covering her skin. Amy supplied her a pair of jeans and a new blue tank top.

Her original clothes were strung up next to all the laundry drying on bits of rope tied between two trees that barely hit the sun. Lunch was canned noodle soup that Dale had a bountiful supply of. Elle chatted with Amy and Andrea for the most part, talking about food they liked when they had access to the working kitchen.

Lori and Carol took charge of cleaning the dishes and everyone else went around camp to relax for a bit. Andrea brushed out Amy's hair for her while Elle and Glenn sat nearby. Glenn's face was an even darker shade of purple than earlier and it took every ounce of will power to not stare at it while talking to him.

"I think I'm gonna go off and find stuff," Elle stood up. "Gotta grab my bag and bat."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Glenn offered.

"Naw, I'll be fine," She swatted a hand in the air, before going to the RV to retrieve her bat. "I'll be back soon enough."

"Get out of my damn way yah pig." A rowdy voice echoed.

"Perfect timing," Elle looked at Glenn, "I'm leaving before that man gets anywhere near me."

"Couldn't find one damn squirrel-" Merle's voice continued to boom throughout camp.

Glenn sighed looking back to see Merle kicking over a log and spitting out curses. He looked back to Elle, "Great. Leave me with the racist."

"Hey, I'll be back soon enough! If anyone is looking for me, let them know where I went okay?"

"You didn't even ask Shane or Dale?" Glenn's eyes widened, "You crazy?"

"I can take care of myself. Don't need no damn permission slips to go off on my own." Elle let her bat rest behind her shoulders. "I'll be back in an hour or so."

Elle gave him a nod before entering the woods. It took a while before she stopped hearing Merle's yells vibrate against the trees. From what she could make of it, he did not catch anything and was now attempting to get high and Shane was yelling up a storm at him.

Walking along the leave littered floor of the forest, she found a sense of urgency today to find food. The soup from lunch did not fill her up as the proportions were small. With Merle's hunt running dry today as well, she didn't know what dinner would be for their group. She looked up at the tree lined sky. The sun was peeking through the branches, hitting her in the eye every so often. Elle liked looking at the sun not only because it was her source of time, but also a bit of a reality check that some things in life were still the same. The sun was still rising and falling every day without falter.

She ended up at a swampy bit of territory, doing her best to avoid stepping in the sinking ground by stepping on fallen trees and logs. She spotted a couple mushrooms on the ground nearby and inspected them.

_Edible._

She picked them and placed them in her tin, brushing off the bits of dirt on them beforehand deciding to rinse them with her water. Walking for another ten minutes, a couple rustling leaves caused her to jump and spin around with bat wielded outward.

_If there's a walker, I'll see him comin'_

It was a sentence she had told herself many times while wandering Georgia by herself.

_They didn't see it coming….Now focus. No past dwelling dumbass._

Climbing up the side of an incline, she gripped the tree in front of her to steady herself. There she spotted another blackberry bush. She crept over kneeling by its leaves and pulling a couple of the berries up to her mouth to satisfy her current hunger. The one she pulled had a caterpillar on it, and she shook it off of the fruit.

"Get outta here buggar…This one's mine." She smirked and placed it in her mouth before quickly picking out. Eating more than she realized, her fingers halted and placed the ones within their grasp in the tin.

_Gotta conserve._

Elle walked back into camp heading to the RV to sit inside and rest a bit. She sat at the table and leaned back in her seat letting her arms hang loosely by her sides. The door opened to the RV and Shane entered and approached her with a raised eyebrow. His lips were pressed tightly together.

"Where the hell you been?" There was no sense of humor in his tone.

"I just went for a walk." Elle looked back and forth from him to the table, where she now folded her hands upon.

"Yeah well you're part of this camp now, and by being part of it we don't wander off by ourselves or without telling Dale or I where you're going," He walked closer, resting a hand on the opposite side of the table, leaning on its edge. "I thought we made that clear to you."

_He's purposely standing above you right now._ She thought, rolling her eyes. _Tryin' seem all tough._

"I don't need a babysitter," She kept her eyes locked to his.

"I don't think you realize the extent of the situation we're in right now."

_Are you fucking kidding me?_

"The hell that supposed to mean?" Elle didn't hide the malice in her voice from his outrageous words, "Yeah I realize the extent of the situation, but I also know I made it a month without an escort, and I don't need one now. You don't go off tellin' this same speal to the Dixon's when they go off and hunt now do yah?" Something in his eyes, she did not like. A red flag went off in her head almost instantly. Not able to pinpoint it, just a gut feeling overcame her that something was off.

He placed the palm of his hand over his mouth a moment and wiped downward letting his hand linger on his chin as he looked at her, "That's a different-"

"How so? They go off whenever they want." She was getting irritated with Shane's voice. His tone gave off the vibe that he deemed himself better than everyone around him.

He took a deep exhale, "Look, I know where you are coming from, but I've had this conversation with Andrea before too. You women don't realize the dangers of going off alone."

_There it is!_

"It's because I'm female." She quirked an eyebrow. _Oh hell no you did not._

"Look I don't wanna fight 'bout this-"

Her fists clenched as anger took over and her skin tingled along her arms and spine.

_Calm down. Not worth it. Don't get kicked out of this camp already._

"Then we're done here." She stood up with him still a good height above her. She didn't break eye contact even when she was close to him. "I'm gonna go outside now."

He moved to the side, lifting his hands in the air as if a gun was a pointed and let her brush past him. She paused at the doorway, clutching her backpack in one hand.

_Goddamn it._

"I'll tell you when I leave next time."

_Weak, weak, weak._ The worded echoed in her head_._ _Had to give in. Barely know these people. Can't anger the leader._

Had it been Dale who said that to her or anyone else, she'd have flipped over the scattered things on the table in front of her and started yelling. There was a reason she was a lawyer. She could argue until everyone listened, but did know when the judge banged his gavel it was time to calm it down. Currently Shane was the judge, and she'd like to remain within the courtroom for now.

_If he said anything more about the matter-_ She had to end the conversation before it went deeper. She knew how to hold in her anger to a point. She didn't need the camp knowing she had issues this early. She enjoyed being right in a conversation. If yelling and screaming was a conversation. She started to think back to a court case where she nearly made the defense lawyer cry when she yelled-

_No. Stop. Again, think of the now. Not the past._

The sun was starting to set and T Dog was busy trying to get the fire lit. Elle found her spot next to Glenn and Amy by the soon to be working fire pit.

Dale pulled over a fold up chair and sat on the other side of Glenn, "Well, I have more beans we could eat tonight. I'm telling you though, my stock of food is going down quickly."

"Tomorrow, I'll grab a lot," Glenn said.

"If anyone needs something for Glenn to see if he can grab tomorrow, think of a list you could write," Shane's voice rumbled as he emerged from the RV. He threw two cans of beans at T Dog, who caught them with ease. The flame had just caught to a log and Jacqui was throwing bits of dried moss onto the fire to keep it going.

"No guarantees," Glenn added in with a little stammer to his voice. "Just let me know by tomorrow."

By the time the beans were fully cooked the sun had now set behind the mountains. The chatter amongst the group and the crackling of the fire was the only sound left in the night air. Shane was the one passing out the helpings of beans and it didn't escape Elle's notice that he gave her a little more than Glenn's bowl had next to her. She figured that was his unseen apology to her. She gave him a small smile and a nod.

If things were gonna be like this every day she could handle it. It sure as hell beat wandering alone on the side of the road, climbing trees to sleep in at night. She spent her free time chatting with Glenn, Dale, Amy, and Andrea the most so far slowly getting to know about each person and their personality. She often redirected the conversation whenever they tried to turn it onto about her. Elle did not like to talk much about herself, instead preferred to be a listener to their conversation and adding input on things that had to do with their lives.

Merle emerged from his tent wiping his nose. It humored Elle to see upon the man's approach to the fire, everyone started to pack up their things and head towards their tents. Merle didn't take notice as he sat down next to his brother and licked his lips.

"I'm gonna go up on watch," Shane said to Lori, placing a hand on her shoulder. She rested her hand on his, patting it a couple times and muttering a word of worry.

"Wanna go to the RV?" Glenn asked Elle.

She considered her options, making eye contact with Merle who was obviously coked out on whatever the hell he had in his stash.

"Yeah I do," She followed Glenn to the RV and the two set up their blankets. Obviously not tired yet, the two went through Dale's book collection and picked at its contents trying to find one that they could start reading during free time. Glenn asked Elle's opinion on a couple of them, some of which she knew about and some she had no idea about. The two were discovered by Dale who entered the RV to get some sleep, as the books were in the bedroom towards the back. He came in and pointed out books that they might like at this point, and then told them he was getting some shut eye.

Glenn sat at the table reading a book about technology, resting his head in his hand.

_Some good that will do us now._

Elle was reading some Stephen King book while laying down on her blankets. She looked up at Glenn who gave a bored look, squinting his eyes.

"Hey wait-," She sat up, and reached for her backpack underneath the table, "-almost forgot."

She reached in digging out the tin that held the mushrooms and berries and held it out in front of her towards Glenn, "Help yourself."

He took a handful and smiled wide at her, "Thank you, I'm still so hungry."

"How's your eye?" She took a handful for herself and picked at it from her palm while she spoke.

He batted a hand in the air, "It's fine, can't even feel it anymore."

_Liar._

"Well, let's not have a repeat of yesterday," She joked as he closed the book in his hand and scooted over to his own bed. They exchanged their goodnights and ate the rest of their helping before getting comfortable.

Elle ended up tossing and turning for a good hour and even when she found a position that suited her comfort level, her eyes would not remain shut. Glenn's soft snores were sounding particularly loud to her and bounced off the RV walls into her head causing a sudden aching in her temple.

_Ah, this is why I liked sleeping alone._

Shifting to turn over in an attempt to fall asleep once more, her leg hit the side of the counter right in a spot that shot chills throughout her leg and temporary numbness. She let out a strained noise and sat up.

_Okay fuck this._

Silently, she stood up grabbing her backpack and walked outside of the RV towards the dying fire. There was a little bit of flames left but mostly dying red embers. She reached over towards the pile of logs and threw a couple on it. The camp was silent and all lanterns within the tents were shut off, giving a peaceful vibe to the air as the survivors slept. She sat down on a log close to the fire and glanced over her shoulder when she heard the soft clanking of metal.

Shane climbed off the ladder to the RV roof and walked over to her. He stopped a couple feet from her, letting his large gun rest on the floor, holding and leaning on it with one hand.

"Can't sleep?" He asked.

_Obviously._

"Mmmhm," She nodded at him, turning away to stare at the flickering flames that caught on her newly added log.

"I didn't mean to come atcha earlier, I just gotta enforce the rules. I just want 'veryone safe-"

She cut him off, "I know…Sorry if I sounded defensive. It's just not what I'm used tah."

_Ugh. Kissing ass right now._

"S'okay. You ain't gonna go off in the woods right now right?" He rubbed his chin, scratching in the five o'clock shadow growing in.

_His eyes._

She focused back on his face, more specifically his eyes. She did not like them. At first she found him attractive, but now something kept tugging at her gut that he was dangerous when angry. His eyes were the only explanation for this.

_I'm observing things too closely right now_. She always did. She picked up on the little stuff, like the way Lori went off earlier to collect more firewood when it wasn't needed and Shane said he'd help her. She noticed Lori's zipper was undone once she returned and Shane had a particularly noticeable scratch mark on his left arm.

"Naw, I'm gonna sit right here. I could go on watch if yah want. I don't think I can sleep well right now. You look exhausted." She offered with the best fake smile she could muster.

_Just go away._

"You damn women-"

_There it is again! _Her grip on the log beneath her tightened as she focused deeply on the fire which had grown to a decent flame.

"-and you're worrying. I'll be fine. I'm wide awake," He chuckled and went back to his post on the roof.

Sitting alone was a relief. She leaned forward letting her arms lean on her knees, hunching her back to watch the fire. No snoring, no uncomfortable floor, no Shane and his thoughts on women being inferior, no-

Rustling came from the woods across from the fire. Instantly she straightened up in her seat and was about to stand up before Daryl emerged from the woods, tugging on his pants as if they were falling down.

"Jeez, thought you was a walker." She said, returning to her hunched position, looking at him.

"Guy can't take a piss in peace?" His sleeveless shirt that obviously used to be white and was now a light brown caked color had a couple leaves on it. He brushed them off as he sat on a log diagonally across from her, "The hell you doin' out here?"

She gave a small shrug of her shoulders, "Couldn't sleep."

"Makes two of us," He said while pulling out a lighter and pack of cigarettes from his pocket. He placed one in his mouth and cupped a hand near the end while lighting it, squinting until it lit.

She felt the hairs on her arms stand up at the smell of the smoke hitting her faintly.

_That would help me sleep._

She almost wanted to get closer to where he was seated just to inhale the smoke's mixture coming out of his mouth as he exhaled. Her fists clenched.

_I need one…badly._

She was so transfixed on the little red glowing tip of the stick hanging out of his mouth, she did not realize he was giving her a perplexed look at her staring. Coming to the realization, she looked down and kept her silence. Small talk wasn't really her thing. The rest of the camp had spoken to her first, which was easy enough. People who talked to you, gave you the option of a response and normally one that would come very naturally and easy. She wouldn't often start the conversation ever.

Placed by the fire near a person who never initiates conversation as well or small talk, meant utter silence. Not that it wasn't welcomed by her; she preferred it most of the time.

It just was a bothersome situation as she desperately wanted to bum a light from him and he seemed the type not to give out handouts to just anyone. If she knew him better, she'd feel more confident in asking him, but the man literally was isolated from the camp half the time. She honestly would have more confidence asking Merle for one, even though she knew it would consist of a snarky sexual comment.

_Ah- to hell with it._

"Can I bother you for one?" She looked at him once more. His hair was spiking out on the sides as if he had been wearing a hat, but it was clearly due to the sweat and lack of hygiene. His brown pants wrinkled up as he stretched his legs forward, crossing his boots at the end which were covered in mud. He leaned back, letting the smoke from his lungs out much longer than needed and he watched the smoke disappear in front of his eyes before looking to her.

"Nope," He responded, "How the hell am I suppose to know if chinaman will be able to find more of these in the city? I ain't giving charity here."

She had noted his box seemed pretty full when he opened it, but understood the lack of supplies. If it was her, she wouldn't give her stash to just anyone.

_Stash…._

"I figured you'd say that, but how 'bout I trade yah?" She started to reach in her bag, glancing at Daryl to see he seemed uninterested. "I went out today and got more fruits and shit. You can have some in exchange for one."

"I'm all set." The tobacco rose to his lips once more and he inhaled deeply. He either didn't realize or didn't give a damn how much of a tease the cigarette was to her at the moment.

Staring in the face something that every inch of her body craved for to be running in her bloodstream.

_Damn bastard…I thought for sure-_

"Well, the offer is always on the table, if you get hungry." She proposed, picking at a mushroom from the tin and eating it, before returning the tin to her bag.

"I hunt. I ain't gonna go hungry." He patted his crossbow which was leaning against the log next to him. The way it was propped on the log made it seem like it was its own person with its own seat next to Daryl.

Elle's hands twiddled together and she cracked a couple of them idly, "Merle didn't bring back anything today though-"

"Bad luck." He took another drag and then spit on the ground by his boot.

"Or he can't keep quiet when the animals 'round him." She mused.

"Don't see you or anyone else going out there huntin'. Can't expect something all the time." He sounded offended and cold, which was not the response she expected.

She grew slightly irritated. _Damn idiot is twisting my words._

"Don't mean it like that- meant he's a loud mouth," She folded her arms across her chest.

Daryl didn't respond, instead throwing his bud into the fire and spitting once more. She looked to his crossbow once more, to avoid awkward eye contact.

Speaking of Merle, the other Dixon brother emerged from his tent and walked over to the fire. A grin was not gone unnoticed by Elle once he spotted her.

"Well what'd we have here? Sorry to interrupt your little date, but I damn well can't sleep." Merle sat down on a log that was off to the left of Elle, so he was between Daryl and her.

Daryl made a face ignoring the comment and hacked up another spit, wiping his mouth afterwards and hunching over into a similar position of Elle's current one.

"Some date," The older Dixon let out a 'pfftt' after a couple minutes of silence, "You both are such big talkers."

Elle noticed he had some white powder underneath his nose faintly and rolled her eyes.

"Ain't no date," Daryl's tone rose up slightly giving attitude to his brother. "Came out tah take a piss and smoke."

"Well….why you out here sweet thang?" Merle's tongue slid over his lips.

_Ughhhhhh…_

"Couldn't sleep."

_He won't remember anything I say to him in the morning anyways._

"I could help you with that." He proposed, sliding to the end of his log closer to Elle, "Need to get tired?" His eyes traced down her legs. Although she was on a completely different log than him, she subconsciously slid to the opposite side of her seat.

"You don't back down do yah?" She gave him an amused smirk, playing into it. Her urge to throw a fist on the side of his jaw grew every moment his toothy grin appeared.

"It's the end of the fucking world way I see it," He lifted his hands in the air as if welcoming in a crowd. "Ain't no one left anymore, so why not?"

"Standards," Elle replied.

"Don't matter no more." He looked her head to toe once more and then locked eyes with her. It made her uncomfortable, but she held her ground trying to keep her eyes on his.

"I don't know who you think I am, but I ain't no corner broad," Elle rose her tone a little.

"Never said you was."

"Then stop acting like I am and stop pestering me. I ain't interested."

Merle suddenly stood up with his fists clenched, the drugs clearly messing with his emotions. "Bitch you need to shut your mouth. You respect your elders. My offer should be a damn honor, don't see me going after those other two bimbos."

"Merle…" Daryl looked to him, obviously used to his brother's outbursts.

"You do though," Elle retorted, "when they're around. If Amy or Andrea was out here you'd be tryin' to get with all three of us."

Daryl gave Elle a look making it clear she should keep her mouth shut, but before Elle could speak anymore, Merle kicked the dirt and hacked up a cough. "Goin' fer a walk. I've had enough of this bitch she ain't worth it."

When he was out of range, Elle let out a small groan of annoyance, "He's gonna get killed walkin' out there alone."

"No he ain't," Daryl rested a hand on his knee bending his elbow as if leaning his entire upper body on that arm. His elbow was on his knee with his other hand drooping off the side in between the open space of his parted legs. "Merle's tough as nails. I'm not worried 'bout him."

"He's clearly on drugs though," Elle pestered taking her annoyance with Merle out on Daryl with her tone. "He's a coke head."

"Hey!" Elle jumped at his suddenness, "He's still my brother. Watch your mouth woman."

"Well he needs to watch his. Can't say two words to him without him tryin' to get me in bed with 'em," She unfolded her arms and leaned back on the log, watching the fire once more.

"That's just Merle fer yah. Just gotta get used to it," Daryl coughed a little, before rubbing at his eye.

"Sorry if I ain't used to being looked at like an all you can eat buffet," Elle scoffed.

"Damn women are too sensitive," Daryl grabbed his crossbow and made for his tent, clearly done with the conversation.

"What is with you men and your need to point out gender?"

"You still talkin'?" He called back as he opened his tent flap.

"Shut up," She called to him, but couldn't tell if he even heard as he was already in his tent. Not wanting to be out alone when Merle returned, she went to bed herself.

* * *

"Nothing?"

"Nothing."

Elle was seated near Amy's tent, sitting on a cooler when she overheard Lori and Shane speaking nearby. Elle had spent the beginning half of her day helping pass out the dry clothing to everyone at camp. She changed into her original white tank top and brown cargo pants, returning the borrowed clothing to Amy. Afterwards, she had spent time helping her fellow blondes out scrubbing Dale's canoe out so in a few days they could fish on it.

"He came back with nothing?" Lori repeated. Elle looked out of the corner of her eyes at Lori who had a hand on her temple.

"Merle said he couldn't find anything out there to hunt again," Shane pressed his lips together. Elle quickly looked back at the brush she was scrubbing with not wishing to be caught eavesdropping.

"Why didn't he take Daryl again with him today?" Lori let out in a harsh whisper. "He's the one who captured the most squirrels."

"Said he didn't need his brother's help. Think he wants to prove something, or he's just fucking crazy." Shane stepped closer.

"This is getting out of hand, you told him to bring Daryl and he didn't listen. Daryl sat around all day cleaning his crossbow. Merle uses a gun for Christ sake too. He's gonna alert every walker for miles. He needs to listen to you. We don't have much left to eat."

"Glenn is coming back from town shortly. Food was his priority. Don't worry Lori, we'll figure this out. Come on, we can go find some mushrooms or something later. There's always a solution to our problems. Just trust me. I'll figure it out." The pair separated, with Lori going off to find Carl and Shane walking over to Dale who was on watch.

As if on cue the sound a tires against rocky terrain made Elle look up from her spot over towards the dirt path where a truck was pulling up. It came to a stop and Glenn emerged, carrying his backpack in his hands instead of on his back. A couple of people approached him as he set it down on a log. Elle walked over giving him a smile, genuinely glad he was back safe and sound. He started removing a plastic bag from within one of the slots in his knapsack, "This is all the food. Bunch of canned stuff."

"I'll start dinner," Lori scooped up the bag and walked towards the fire pit, where Carl was helping Shane gather up wood.

Glenn handed various goods to people who asked for random odds and ends. Carol needed new shoes for Sophia and Jim needed a couple rags.

"Here, I hope these fit," Glenn handed Elle a stack of clothes. A couple plain shirts and a pair of jeans was in her hands and she shot another smile to Glenn not bothering to fix the strands of blonde hair that cascaded over her face from looking down at her new possessions. Looking at him through her locks, she noticed his eyes twinkled at her in certain way. His smiled twitched a bit as he tried his best to keep his eyes locked with hers-

_Oh no._

"Thanks Glenn-…. I'm gonna put this stuff away," Her smile faded as she turned to the RV.

"I gotta give Daryl and Merle their cigarettes anyways. See you at dinner." Glenn headed towards the Dixon tent.

_He likes me._

The shy looks, the overwhelming smile on his face, and the stammering in his tone that was almost always present when he was near her.

_Shit. I'm eight years older than him. He'll get over it. It's just because a female is paying attention to him. It's the end of the world. He's scared. _She told herself. It was a gut feeling and her gut feelings were not often wrong. She'd seen the look in his eyes before from other various guys that wanted her back in college-

_No, that life doesn't exist anymore. Stop thinking so much damn._

She wouldn't purposely act different around Glenn to make him get a hint of her unromantic feelings towards him, as she had to remind herself she could be reading too into everything. She wasn't damn psychic. She'd only known Glenn a couple days now, and perhaps it was how he acted around all females. Although he was most certainly less smiley around Andrea and Amy. Sometimes she wished she didn't pick up small details as easily as she could, as it brought unnecessary thinking to her plate sometimes. Brushing those thoughts out of her head, she picked up the book from the counter top that she was slowly reading through and sat down to pass the time. Reading for her transformed into being staring at the book and spacing out on the small white margins to the left of the words. Every so often she'd look outside at the mountain range and the sun setting behind the tree fringed tops of Georgia's rocky landscape. Lori's voice broke her from her idle thoughts and she went outside to be handed a plate of food by Shane. Their meal was a small helping of pasta without sauce or butter to add flavor. Elle and Jacqui volunteered to do dishes tonight, which was washing the plates out in a bucket of water and storing them back in the RV to dry.

The summer night was a bit cooler than most and Elle grabbed a blanket from inside to bring with her to the fire. Glenn went off to bed, exhausted from his run into town. Everyone chatted by the fire, as the number surrounding the orange and red glow slowly went down as the hours into the night went on. Eventually it was just Elle alone by the fire and she figured out she was the most insomniac of the group. Wishing her sleeping pattern was better, she buried her face into her knees siting on the ground instead of a log in order to scoot closer to the warm flames.

"You just sit out here every night now?" A familiar raspy voice pulled her face away from her blanket covered knees.

"Guess so," Elle looked over to see Daryl emerging from nearly the same spot as yesterday. Today he sat on a log that was off to the right of where she sat, diagonally from her. "You take a piss same time every night?"

"Guess so," He shuffled in his seat getting comfortable and placing his crossbow carefully down next to him.

"Where'd you get that?" She pointed at his crossbow, "Smart to have silent weapons now a days."

"Seriously? Girl, you ask some dumb questions." He sounded annoyed, "I _own_ it. Always had it in my truck before this shit happened. Just wish I brought more damn arrows with me," He stretched his arms out in the air, before dropping them to his thighs.

"Wish I had something like that, all I got is my damn bat and gun," She scrunched up her mouth to the side and twitched her nose.

"You know how to use it?" It was as if he could see right through her and knew the answer.

_Well, if he didn't think women were weak already…._

"No," She said very quickly, "But, I know how to use my bat to smack the fuck outta those ugly sons of bitches." She added in the last part to divert away from the fact she didn't know how to use her other weapon.

He let out a 'tsk' noise from his lips and smacked the side of his arm where a bug had bit him, "Might wanna learn. You get a group of those things-" he trailed his eyes up to hers before looking down and shaking his head "- a bat ain't gonna do the trick."

"I know that," She stopped herself from letting her tone show her slight offended mindset, "Not gonna ask someone to teach me, it be a waste of bullets and time. Even if I did figure out how it worked, can't just be expected to aim correctly right off the bat. I'll be fine."

He took a cigarette that was behind his ear out and lit it. He looked at the burning tobacco in his hands and then to Elle. His stomach made a faint rumbling sound and he tried to muffle it with his hand in vain. "Your offer still good?"

"Hmm?"

He pulled out his pack of cigarettes, "Chinaman got me and Merle couple packs…and what with Merle not getting anything on his hunt- is your offer still good?"

"Yeah course," She earned a rolling of the eyes from Daryl, from the excitement in her voice. Reaching within her backpack, she pulled out her tin and stood up. Extending her hand, she offered him the container, "Take the rest of it, its 'bout half way full."

"This-," He held up a lone cigarette and raised his brows, "-is worth all that?"

Elle chose her words wisely, "I'll take what I can get."

He reached back into the pack and pulled two more out, "Take three. I got four more packs till the next trip to the city."

"Thank you," She said with sincerity in her voice. He did not return the thanks, but held the tin in his hands and slowly started to pick at its contents.

"You got a lighter?" She asked, already knowing the answer. She decided to sit on the opposite end of the log he was on, knowing she'd want to have all three cigarettes right then and there and she sure as hell did not feel like getting up every time she needed to light the damn things.

He tossed at her a small lighter and she caught it. Flicking the flame to life with her thumb, she placed the cigarette in her mouth which was salivating from just the smell of the unlit tobacco so close to her nose. She inhaled the warm smoke and held it within her lungs for a few moments savoring its taste.

_God…it's been too long._

Her entire body relaxed as she let the smoke out through her mouth gently and quickly took another drag off it.

"Where's your brother?" She asked Daryl as he puffed his own cigarette in between eating the blackberries on his lap. She felt more confident in speaking while smoking. The old saying was always that there is no stranger on a smoker's bench.

_Well in this case a smoker's log._ She shifted on the wooden seat, crossing her legs.

"Sleeping, I assume. I ain't his damn overseer." Daryl coughed a moment, before rubbing his lips with his palm. He took another drag off his cigarette and looked at her for a moment. "Why? Want me to get 'em for you?"

"No!" Her answer came out of her mouth rather quickly. "Just wondering. Hadn't seen him by the fire earlier…. or you for that matter. Where'd you guys go?"

"Ate by our tents."

"Why?"

"Why not?" He responded shortly.

_Wow….is this how I talk to people?_ She thought, realizing he did the same thing as her. He diverted the conversation away from himself often and refused to give answers to questions_. No I don't sound like that, at least I'm polite when I do it. He acts more like how I talk to Shane, when he talks to anyone._

"Dunno, doesn't matter," She inhaled more nicotine and shut her eyes for a brief moment before releasing the entrapped smoke from her lungs.

_This conversation is going so many places right now!_

Smoker's bench logic didn't apply to Daryl apparently. Often Elle would talk to people outside bars and she could get them to talk up a storm about themselves, which would entertain her and pass the time. She'd always give short answers back and word responses in a manner that would make them have to dive more into personal stories about themselves. Perhaps that's why people in bars men would often enjoy talking with her as men; she learned this very early on, loved to talk about themselves. She was the type to let men talk about themselves.

But this was not the case for the sleeveless redneck sitting a couple feet from her.

They smoked thier cigarettes and almost in complete tandem threw their buds as far as they could and lit up another to smoke.

Halfway through her smoke, the silence didn't bother her anymore. In fact it was comfortable. If she was with Glenn or Amy they'd fill every spot of air with constant chatter not liking the silence, but Daryl did not care in the slightest about it. Elle glanced up and saw Daryl's eyes quickly shift back to the fire.

"It's getting too damn cold at night," It finally spoke for the first time without probing through his teeth. He stood up and grabbed another log to place on the fire. He sat back in the same spot and blew out smoke without removing the cigarette from between his lips.

"Dunno how the hell you got no sleeves on right now," She tugged her blanket tighter around herself.

He shrugged as a response and snorted, wiping underneath his nose. "Suppose to hunt tomorrow. Think it's gonna rain."

"How can you tell?" She threw her butt into the fire and kept her remaining cigarette tucked behind her ear for later.

"Clouds," He threw his bud to the ground and stomped on it letting small sparks of red scatter into the dirt. "Gonna be a pain in the ass."

"Why didn't you go the past two days?" Elle asked.

"Merle," He said flatly.

"Merle?"

He gave her a look as if she was stupid for asking that, "Yeah, I said Merle."

"That's hardly a response."

"Well it's my response. Why the hell haven't _you _gone the past three?"

_Is it that hard to say why he didn't go hunting? It's not even a personal question._

"I don't know how to hunt animals." Elle tried her best to sound calm.

"Exactly. None of you damn people know how to and leave it up to us. Fucking Lori-," He threw his arm up towards the direction of her tent, "-bitched today 'bout Merle showing up with nothin' but I don't see anyone else offering to go out." Daryl's voice did not hide the pent up anger that was slowly seeping through.

_That's it, I've had it!_

"You're twisting my words 'round," Elle rolled her eyes, irritated. "If I knew how to hunt, I'd offer to help, but I'm sure none of these people know how. I don't care that Merle didn't come back with nothing, I was just wondering why he went off alone past two days. Thought you went together all the time."

"Me and him ain't married. He can do his own thing and I can do mine," Daryl kicked the dirt where he sat, as the muscles in his arms visibly tensed up.

"You're gonna wake up the whole camp if you don't keep it down," Elle folded her arms across her chest.

"Whatever, they shouldn't be all so damn peaceful and sleeping in the middle of what the hell is going on with this world." Daryl purposely raised his voice.

"I'm positive no one is sittin' in their tent peacefully, Daryl," She spoke his name out loud for the first time increasing her attitude with each word spoken.

"Well they all be puttin' their lives in the hands of one guy sittin' on the roof thinkin' he's fucking dictator or something 'round here," Daryl pointed to Shane sitting on the roof in the distance.

"He's just tryin' create order-"

"Think there's such a thing as order when dead people are walkin' around?" Daryl's eyes narrowed as he looked at her from the tops of his eyes, head lowered as he straightened up in his seat.

"I think-" She paused, swallowing the lump of irritation in her throat, "-we are part of a group now, and have to try and work together to get through this."

"Now you're just sounding like that joke of a cop!" Daryl's hands picked at the log's bark and threw whatever he could pull off of it into the fire.

"I didn't say I agreed with him fully or that we should listen to every single thing he says. I'm just sayin' we all gotta try to get along-"

"And what?" He interrupted her, "Live happily ever after?"

"No I-"

"This ain't no story book, princess. The way I see it, it's gonna be only the smart and strong that survive."

Elle threw her hands up exhausted with the redneck twisting her words around, "Will you just stop talkin'?! Can't say one thing to you without you takin' it outta context. God, don't know if I'd rather be talkin' to Merle at this rate."

"I'll be sure to let him know you're thinking 'bout him when he wakes up. In fact, I'll go wake him up right now-" Daryl rose up and started for his tent.

Elle quickly stood up and threw the lighter at him hitting him in the chest, "Will you fucking stop being such an ass!"

He turned on his heel quickly, picking up the lighter and throwing it back at her, aiming more towards her lower legs.

"Then stop running yer damn mouth woman." He walked back over towards the fire, picking his lighter up for the second time in front of her feet.

"You're the one twisting my words around." She glared down at him and had to force her gaze up as he stood up straight with the lighter in his hands. He was now the closest he'd ever been to her, with his face a good foot away, eyes glaring down at her with his chin held up high. He let out an exaggerated short breath from his nose and turned to sit back down on the log.

She went over to a different log.

"Ain't you lawyer? You're the one that's has a job where twisting words is part of everyday life. Isn't it? Don't be blaming me for it. You're probably the queen bee o' twistin' words." Daryl lit another cigarette, perhaps to calm himself down at this point.

"Being a lawyer has nothing to do with anything." She spat.

"Oh yeah?" Daryl raised an arm up, "What stupid prep school you graduate from that taught you how to speak the way you do?"

"Doesn't matter now does it?" Elle spat and looked towards the fire.

"Aye! Don't go yelling at me for not answering a dumb question from you when first day of camp yah don't tell a soul what the fuck your town name is even. Hypocrite." Daryl said standing up at this point.

_Whoa…He has a good memory. He picks up on stuff real quick._

Dale had said a couple days ago that Daryl was smarter than he let on, and now she was slowly starting to see that.

"Well what the fuck ever, who cares? I don't even remember what question you didn't wanna answer earlier now even," Elle stood up as well, "I'm just gonna go to bed."

"Don't need to tell me that." Daryl folded his arms across his chest, letting his cigarette hang low from his mouth.

_You asshole._

The urge to hit him across the face crossed her mind, but she quickly turned and headed off to sleep.

* * *

Take a couple seconds to review please. Lemmi know whatcha think! Also 12 days til Walking Dead is back! BOOYAH!


	3. The Day That Changed Everything

This had taken longer than expected. I was in Legally Blonde the musical at my college and practice took over every night and midterms happened. The play went well! Was great experience, but now that it's over time to write. So….Season 3. Crazy huh? Little Ass Kicker? Governor Phillip? T DOGG!? Oh well. I hope Carol is dead…Wait what? Where did that come from? Not me. I'm innocent over here. I just do not care for her ever since Sophia went missing and she didn't even look for her as much as Rick and everyone else. Oh a zombie is chasing Sophia? Rick is gonna be the only one to hop up and chase after her. But the mom will stand back and wait. Rant over. So this chapter finally picks up into season one's plotline! Let the games begin!

* * *

"Go fish." Carl held a wide grin on his face as Shane eyed him.

"Come on little man! You gotta be kiddin' me!" Shane looked down and dug through his cards until he found the proper one. He looked over his hand carefully, before letting out an exaggerated sigh. A fit of laughter came from Sophia and Carl.

"I give up." Amy let her pile of cards loose from her grip. They scattered on the makeshift table.

"Carl, I think you win," Elle looked at her large pile of cards within her hands and then to the two cards gripped in Carl's tiny fingers.

"Baby, you better not gamble when you get older." Lori joked, rubbing the top of his head.

"He's a natural." Shane stood up and grabbed his gun, "I'm gonna go chop up some wood with T Dog and Andrea. See y'all at dinner."

Elle looked past Shane to see the Dixon brothers strolling into camp with numerous woodland creatures slung over their shoulders. They both set down their hunt by their tent and looked around for skinning knives. She brought her attention to Amy, who was giving her a small smile.

"Wanna go find Glenn?" she asked, gathering up the playing cards. "We gotta give him the cards back."

"Yeah sure," Elle stood up and dusted the back of her jeans off.

"I like moments like this-" Amy stood up herself, and headed towards to RV. "Kinda makes things feel normal."

"Ain't nothing normal 'bout this. Normal would be in our houses, not playing cards on top of a turned over box." Elle coughed a little and wiped her mouth.

Amy scrunched her brow. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know- not in a good mood today, sorry." Elle sighed, "Dixon fucker pissed me off last night."

They reached the RV and went inside, seeing Glenn seated at the table with a book in his hand. He placed it down and scooted over to allow Elle to sit next to him. Amy sat across and leaned forward resting her arms on the table, "I heard you two yelling last night. You didn't wake me up—I was just having a hard time falling to sleep. Don't know what you said but I did hear raised voices. What was going on?"

"Nothing really," Elle leaned back, her left shoulder hitting the side of Glenn every so often due to the close seating quarters. "He just has a short fuse I guess. Got mad over things that didn't make sense to get all riled up about."

"That's why I don't talk to them." Amy yawned. "I suppose that's the most I ever heard Daryl speak though."

"They don't even say 'thanks' when I get them their supplies." Glenn shifted in his seat, as Amy passed him the deck of cards.

A loud clap of thunder echoed out throughout the mountains, forcing the three to look out the window.

"Son of a bitch." Elle sucked on her lower lip.

"What?" Glenn looked to her.

"Daryl told me yesterday it was gonna rain." She stood up and went to the closet retrieving a towel and a bar of soap. "Why does he always have to be right?"

"Lucky guess, I'd say. But don't tell him that. Men like to always be right about everything-" Amy looked to Glenn, "Well not all, I'm just- you understand what I mean. Where you going?"

"Think I'm gonna to go take a bath at the quarry ." She folded her towel over her arm.

"Want me to go with you?" Glenn offered, about to stand. He considered what he said and spoke quickly, "I-I didn't mean to s-sound like that, I meant like to guard- to make sure- to…"

Elle batted her hand towards him nonchalantly. "Naw, I'll be okay. I know what you meant. A walker comes along, I'll kill it."

"Let Dale or Shane know you leave. I saw how mad he was when they couldn't find you the other day. He can get real…scary looking when he's mad." Amy grabbed the book Glenn had been reading and inspected it.

"I'll let him know. See you guys at dinner." Elle left the RV and walked over to the fire pit where Shane was dropping down freshly cut logs into a pile. She let him know where she was going and turned on her heel to head towards the quarry. She stopped mid-walk looking towards the Dixon brothers who were skinning some squirrels on their laps. Against her better judgment, she walked towards the pair.

"Do you need help with that?" She looked directly at Daryl who head rose once as she approached but kept his eyes focused on his current animal in hand.

Daryl let out a noise between his lips. "Pfft, you'd get in the way and take too long."

Elle let a small smirk cross her lips, expecting this answer, "Good, then if that's what you think, don't be bitchin' ever again 'bout no one ever offering to help you. Remember that next time you say we're all unhelpful." With that, Elle felt her foul mood within her slowly fade away to closure noting that Daryl's face struggled to remain still. He let out another grunt, looking as if he was about to open his mouth when Merle spoke up.

"Where you headin' girly? Afternoon swim?" She looked over at Merle, who furrowed a brow and spit off to the left of him,

"Taking a bath-….Please…don't look at me like that." Elle scrunched her face in disgust as Merle grew a wide grin on his face. "Don't get any ideas."

"Need an escort? Could even lather you-"

"If I didn't want Glenn or Amy to guard me what makes me think I'd want you? I'm gonna go now, and if I catch wind of you even walking down that trail, I'll make sure-"

"You'll make sure what? Your little chink boyfriend will come and rough me up?" The redneck sneered and hacked up a fit for a moment before sipping on a bottle of water by his side. Whether it was actually water was up for debate.

"He ain't my boyfriend. He's near ten years younger than me and stop that racist talk. There's children at this camp." Elle gave Merle another glare before turning towards the path that lead to the quarry.

She ignored the foul mouthed comments coming at her from the redneck behind her, blocking it successfully out by softly humming a song to herself. Another clap of thunder rang out as she neared the water's edge. She stripped off her shirt and pants. Not wanting to risk Merle showing up, she decided to remain in her underwear, while she bathed herself as in her mind it was just as equivalent to a bathing suit. Stepping into the water, which was a bit chillier than she remembered it to be, Elle drove forward to get her entire body soaked. Clutching the soap in her hand, she began to scrub it against her arms and underarms removing the caked on dirt that clung to her skin.

She ran over a couple cuts that were inflicted from thorns or tree climbing. While she was alone, the most serious injury on her body was just about closed up. She ran the soap over her stomach, where a fine red line ran from an inch under her breast to around her belly button. She'd fallen on her descent down a tree she had spent the night in. She underestimated the distance to the ground and fell into a thorn bush, with a stick slightly jabbed against the side of her body. She laid in that bush for a good half hour trying to get the will power to remove the stick, which went in at an angle that went vertically upward through her skin and not horizontally into her organs. It had been one of her numerous close calls. Her fingers brushed against the cut, seeing it would scar from the redden skin that surrounded it. Elle lowered her body into the water to allow modesty when she ran the soap underneath her bra to wash her chest. Her skin felt tingly at the touch of the minty smelling soap and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up at the feeling of utter cleanliness.

Remaining in the water for longer than needed, she watched the forest around her sway in reaction to the slowly picking up breeze blowing from the south. A storm was certainly coming tonight, she could tell.

_Damn Dixon always being right…_

She submerged herself underwater. Coming up, she walked to shore and wrapped the towel around her. Finding a flat rock off to the side of the shore, she sat on it wringing out her long hair between her fingers. She started to try to get rid of the knots within it, ripping out chunks of hair in the process. She threw the blonde patches off to the side and continued to work through her snarls. She wished she had a pair of scissors because she would have just cut her hair above her shoulders right then and there. Hair was just something that got in that way of things now and not something to be cared about. Andrea had almost the same color hair as her, but she always saw Andrea brushing away at her hair in her spare time. She'd comb through it before dinner, after dinner, after chopping away at logs. Amy also took part in this ritual. The two of them, she had figured, wanted to keep their lives as normal as possible for the time being and keep themselves groomed. They were near attached at the hip those two.

Another clap of thunder took her from her thoughts and she used the towel to dry herself, rather than just sit on it. Putting her clothing back on, she felt a bit dirty but remained in a pleasant mood from the smell of mint on her skin. Returning to camp, she found the laundry basket and placed the towel within it before finding Glenn and Amy seated by the fire which Shane was starting to light.

"How was your bath?" Amy asked, scooting over so Elle could sit between her and Glenn.

"Was great, hopefully it doesn't rain over dinner." Elle watched as Merle placed a couple squirrels that were impaled with sticks on the hooks around the fire pit. Daryl started to hand him the ones he couldn't carry over.

"You were gone for a good two hours. Must have been a nice bath," Amy teased.

"Two hours?" Elle's eyes widen. "Whoa….Guess I am not used to tracking time." She rubbed her arm as the air started to get colder.

Glenn took notice, watching Elle's fingers glide over her skin, "Think I'm going to go grab a couple blankets from the RV. You guys want some to keep warm out here?"

The two females nodded in appreciation and watched as Glenn went to the vehicle.

"I think he likes you," Amy said in a lower volume once he was out of earshot.

"I think-….Like I told Merle earlier…I am ten years older than him almost. I see him as a friend nothing more. Stop smiling like that Amy," Elle tried to keep herself serious, but broke out into a smile. She chuckled, "Why don't _you_ go for him? You two seem the proper age for each other. He's a sweet kid."

"Not my type though," Amy smirked. "My old boyfriends back home were-" She lifted her hands in the air as if painting out a picture in front of her, "Tall, muscular….jocks…and complete airheads." She laughed once more, "I know it seems shallow, but that's just the type I go for and from the looks of the world now a days, options are limited." She looked down and shrugged. "Guess, I'll ask Merle-"

"Don't even joke!" Elle giggled, "He's probably got some supersonic alert in his brain whenever a woman talks about him. He'll be here in three seconds offering you to stay in his tent to keep warm."

"Oh jeez, I'm joking." Amy batted a hand in the air, "I wonder what happened to all my old boyfriends…I had like…four serious relationships in high school and college and they all seemed fit enough to survive this. I mean, hell if I have made it this far-"

Elle ran her tongue across her lip before folding her hands on her lap, "Just don't think 'bout it. It's better if you stay in the moment now, than think about even tiny things that aren't around anymore."

"How do you do it Elle? I know right now I seem fine, but in my tent….when I go to sleep…I sometimes can't manage to..." Her tone dropped and she scooted closer to Elle, to keep their conversation hushed. "Not out of fear or anything, but…" Her voice cracked, obviously trying to keep her emotions inward, "I just miss everything. I just lay there and mourn it all yanno?"

"I don't know…actually…" Elle tried to sound empathetic.

"That's just it!" The young blonde flew up her hands; Elle saw a hint of desperation in her blue eyes. "You seem so calm about everything. How do you keep yourself in that mindset? How-"

"I got the blankets!" Glenn held three blankets in his hands and tossed each of the girls one. Elle graciously wrapped it over her shoulders and pulled on the edges of the blanket in front of her to immerse herself in a cocoon. Amy did the same, while Glenn let it drape over his legs.

"Elle! Amy!" Carl and Sophia ran over to them, emerging from Lori's tent. "Look what we found!"

Cupped within Sophia's tiny hands, was a small caterpillar. It crawled around her palm and she tilted her hand as it crawled around to the other side.

"Wow…That's…nice!" Amy, obviously did not care for bugs.

"We named him Martin! He's real cute!" Sophia giggled as it crawled up her arm.

"You guys gonna make a cage for him to live in? He'll run off when you go to bed if you leave him loose." Elle smiled at the two. Children's innocence was nice company to have for the time being.

"We were looking for Shane! He said he'd help us! Have you seen him?" Carl asked, looking past her shoulders in an attempt to find him.

"Shane's in the RV with Dale." Glenn pointed over his shoulder. "Better catch him before dinner starts."

The two sprinted towards the RV.

"They're awful cute kids," Amy looked over her shoulder, watching them, "Lori and Carol are good moms. I don't know how they can handle all this that way they do. They still want their kids to be kids. I respect it. You're awful good with the kids too Elle."

"I grew up with three brothers. Heh, I know how handle children." Elle said lightly.

"Three brothers? No sisters? Rough. You guys get along?" Amy's eye lit up with interest.

"Mmmmhmm," was all Elle responded with before glancing up, "I think dinner is ready. We should grab our plates."

Shane was already passing around plates and Elle lowered her clutch on her blanket letting it freely cling to her shoulders while she took the plate. Merle placed the cooked squirrels on a slightly large plate. He then grabbed a couple for himself and passed the plate to Daryl who did the same. Daryl then passed the plate to Jacqui who was not as eager to place a cooked squirrel on her plate as the Dixon's were. Another plate full of baked beans was being passed around the circle, and numerous people placed more than a normal amount of beans on their plates to make up for the squirrel they unhappily ate. In reality, once Elle took her first hesitant bite of the small meaty creature, she did not expect it to taste so much like….chicken. The meat though was by no means something she thoroughly enjoyed. It was charred and tough to bite through and she could taste the flames in each bite. She scooped at her beans on the plate, pushing them back and forth on her plate a couple times before raising the spoon to her mouth.

"So tomorrow," Shane raised his voice over everyone's to gain attention, "Glenn is going back to Atlanta. I talked it over with him and he's agreed to allow a couple people go with him so that you all can carry more supplies back up to camp. You're all gonna have to follow his lead though, as he knows the city better than most now. Do I have any volunteers to go?"

"I'll go." T Dog spoke up first and then placed his plate in the washing bin, "Might as well rest up if we got a big day tomorrow."

"I'll go too dear," Jacqui smiled, "I do nothing around here all day. Don't wanna feel like I ain't helping out. Besides I worked in the city too, perhaps I know a couple places we could search that you don't."

"Thank you two. It means a lot that you guys are volunteering," Shane earnestly spoke to them.

"I'll do it," Andrea suddenly said from behind Amy. She had been off in the woods going to the bathroom, but caught wind of the conversation. "And can I ask, when is someone gonna teach me to use my gun?"

"I'll help yah in time Andrea." Shane nodded.

Amy's eyes went wide looking back at her sister, "I'll go too…"

"No Amy," Andrea pressed her lips together firmly, "You stay here tomorrow."

"I'm not a little kid anymore. I can help-"

"Well, I want you to stay here. For God's sake bugs scare you. Walkers all around you, wouldn't be smart." Andrea had a hint of regret in her eyes after speaking. Amy looked near ready to yell, but quickly stood up and harshly dropped her plate into the washing bin. Silently she marched off to her tent, with her sister following quickly behind her.

"What the hell, ole blondie is going? I'll sign up for this shit." Merle rested an elbow on his knee. "You go off hunting by yourself tomorrow baby brother. I'll get us ten packs of this" He took his cigarette out of his mouth and pointed it in the air, before returning it to his mouth for a drag.

"Are you sure that's-" Lori began.

"Thank you Merle. We appreciate it." Shane interrupted Lori and furrowed a brow at her. Lori rolled her eyes and motioned to Carl. She stood by his side and kissed the top of his head, resting an arm around his shoulder as she led him to their tent. Shane watched them carefully, as his body turned towards their direction, but his head still facing the group. "Well, that sounds like enough people-"

"I'll go too." Morales walked past the group, "My family needs medicines for the children. I know what they need, so I think I should go."

"Alright it's settled then. Everyone get a good night's rest. Dale's on watch tonight. I'll see y'all in the morning." Shane then took off where his body was pointing towards Lori's tent. Everyone seemed tense tonight and she started to hear the harsh words of Lori speaking from her tent followed by Shane trying to quiet her down. It was all mumbled to her though and she couldn't make out any specific words.

_Everyone's having an off day…_ Elle let her spoon fall onto her empty plate. Glenn stood up next to her and took her plate for her to the washing bin. He sat back down and leaned forward towards the fire. Elle looked over at him, seeing his face was also tense. His lips were pressed together tightly as he leaned his elbows on his knees and let his hands cupped together rest under his chin. He stared intently at the fire, which was not like him at all. Seated next to Elle, he would always engage in conversation.

"You okay?" Elle asked, breaking him from his concentration.

"I don't know about bringing all these people with us to Atlanta. I wanted to go alone again this time," He looked at her from the corners of his eyes, "But Shane thinks it's best if we brought others with me to allow us to carry more back. But, going alone is so I can be stealthy. Now I have to be concerned about having five people following my every step. It's just more noise and attraction to the walkers…"

"Shane made you?" Elle looked to the fire.

"Not…made me…Just put up an argument that would make me sound selfish if I refused to take people with me. I'm by no means mad at anyone…I'm just worried." Glenn leaned back in his seat, relaxing a little.

"I won't argue with you there, by no means I agree with Shane though. I understand what you mean about a group only attracting more attention." She scanned her surroundings from the dim lights within tents, to the Dixons smoking away seated across the fire, to Andrea and Amy's shadows cast on their tents that showed they were pointing fingers at each others and using exaggerated arm movements. "Don't worry about it, tomorrow. You have control over them all. Shane said so himself. You make the calls. Even if that means you get there and you see moving with a big group around the city is a bad idea, just tell them all to stay back by the edges of the city and you go grab stuff and bring it back to them to carry and you keep taking trips in. Whatever you need to do and feel comfortable with, that's what has gotta happen." She lowered her voice, "And don't let Merle act up."

She jumped a little in her seat at the sudden sound of loud yelling coming from Carol and Ed's tent. Looking over her shoulder, she saw no light coming from their tent but enough sound to attract a walker.

_Sometimes, I think I'd be better off alone. These damn people are gonna get us all killed, but….._

"Thank you," Glenn took her from her thoughts.

"For what?"

"For noticing I wasn't right. Not many people around here seem to care what others feel or think." Glenn stood up and folded his blanket over his arm. "I'm going to rest up for tomorrow. See you in morning."

"Yeah, see you later," Elle nodded to him and wrapped her blanket tighter around her.

"Well, shoooooot. Baby brother doesn't it always end up being us three out here?" Merle raised his voice to get Elle's attention, "How you like the squirrel sweetheart?"

Biting her tongue, Elle looked across the fire to Merle. The flames in her line of sight flickered in a way that made him look as if he were the devil himself seated and encased in a flaming throne. His eyes glinted wildly as he took a sip from his bottle. The face he made after swallowing had now made her deduce that it was not water. "It was better than I thought a squirrel would taste?"

"Ain't no five star restaurants 'round here darling." Merle hacked.

Elle let out a small 'tsk', "I _know_ that I-" She stopped herself, feeling in no mood to resemble surrounding tent's mannerisms at the moment. Near everyone at camp was in some sort of tense argument or unhappy mood. She did not like jumping on bandwagons. "It was very nice of you guys to go out and bring us food. Thank you. It was a good variety."

"I knew manners were somewhere tucked in that blonde skull 'o yers," Merle chuckled and then reached in his pocket for another cigarette. "I hope I find something near god damn useful in that city tomorrow."

"I'm quite surprised you volunteered Merle," Elle said licking her chapped bottom lip momentarily.

"Believe me, I didn't do it to help out the group. I'm gonna go get me some cigs and dip." Merle flicked his lighter causing smoke to emit from the nicotine stick hanging loosely from his lips. "Maybe some salt for the squirrel meat if I'm lucky.

"Oh and here I thought you were feelin' charitable. Excuse me," Elle pursed her lips. Merle looked at her stoically for a moment before breaking into a fit of laughter.

"I didn't see your hand," Merle argued. Daryl remained silent, smoking his cigarette and looking up every so often at who was speaking, but for the most part he remained with a blank face staring deeply in the fire.

"By the time I was gonna, Shane said that was enough. Besides, the look on Glenn's face seemed as if he did not want to take people to begin with." Elle subconsciously cracked her fingers and knuckles underneath the blanket.

"Well little Chinaman don't got a choice in the say." Merle let out an exaggerated breath. "I hope you find something worth bringing back baby brother," he said while nudging the side of Daryl's arm.

"I'll be gone a few days. Bound to find somethin' good tah eat." Daryl straightened up from his slouching position and crossed his boot covered ankles straight out in front of him.

"A few days?" Elle shifted her gaze to Daryl who met her eyes. His expression was still relatively blank as he exhaled the smoke from his lungs and then tossed the end of his cigarette into the fire. His blue eyes kept eye contact with her for another moment, before observing the flames.

Instead of a snarky comment as a response like she expected, he kept it casual, "Yeah, better chance of finding something bigger and better if I'm out there longer and by myself."

"What if something bad happens?"

"Awh look she's worried. Typically woman." Merle started to laugh, but ended up in a coughing fit.

"Pfft, this coming from you? Person who was on their own for a while? You think I can't handle myself out there? Woman, I lived in the woods near half my life. Ain't nothing gonna sneak up on me. Jeez…" Daryl had picked up a tiny pile of dirt from the ground as his arms hung low off his seat. He threw the dirt into the fire causing a small hissing noise.

Elle had her mouth open the whole time to speak, but did not manage to find time through Daryl's miniature explosion. "Actually…I uh, meant what happens if something bad happens here." She pointed at the ground, "Like, what happens if we get overrun and pack up and leave and you come back to nothing."

"We'll fuck if I know, I'd just sit down and eat whatever the hell I dragged back to camp before finding all y'all asses. Wouldn't be hard with this one." Daryl pointed to his brother, who stopped mid-drink to look at Daryl.

"The hell that mean?" Merle capped his bottle and threw it to the ground.

"Means your volume is a bit loud sometimes." Daryl leaned forward and uncrossed his ankles.

"Fuck off," Merle raised his voice, causing Elle to stiffle a laugh by rubbing at her mouth to pretend she was holding in a cough. Merle stood up and reached down for his bottle before mumbling under his breath as he went to his tent.

Elle and Daryl remained there silently across from one another, staring at the fire. Both did not look up or try to start a conversation. The silence was not even awkward to Elle. Feeling no urge to speak for the time being she enjoyed the comfort of the blanket wrapped around her and the smell of burning logs. She could not imagine what the group going to Atlanta was going to be like tomorrow.

_Poor, Glenn._

She pictured Glenn trying to guide everyone into a shop and then Merle getting distracted by a liquor store and causing a bunch of walkers to follow them. Merle was not one to follow orders, so Glenn taking charge did not seem probable. She was half content with the fact she was not going into the city. It would be dangerous and she spent the past month avoiding danger. It was a waste in her mind to bring everyone with Glenn. She sided with his opinion on the matter. She understood where Shane was coming from and the logic of being able to carry more, but one pair of footsteps was quieter than half a dozen pairs. She looked up for a moment at Daryl who was lighting another cigarette as usual. He had a good habit of knowing when someone was looking at him as he suddenly looked up and met her gaze. He looked down another moment.

"Want one?" he asked through the side of his lip, keeping the cigarette in his mouth as he spoke.

"I actually didn't go out hunting for any berries today, so I don't have anything to trade tonight," she said. "Thanks though."

"It's Merle's pack." Daryl took one out and placed the pack in his pocket.

"Oh, then most _certainly_ no. I take one he won't ever let me hear the end of it." Elle let the blanket fall from her shoulders and rest on her forearms, exposing the tops of her shoulders and t-shirt to the cool Georgia air.

"He's getting more tomorrow and he's too drunk to notice a couple gone missin'. Here," He held out his arm, "You just owe me next time you go out."

Elle stood up, taking the blanket with her, and walked to Daryl. She took the cigarette from his hand, her fingers barley brushing against his thumb. "Thank you. I'll have a ton ready for whenever yah get back then."

Instead of returning to her seat, she sat diagonal from him on a nearby log. It dawned on her that she was supposed to still be mad at him. Wasn't she? She couldn't remember now, with yesterday feeling like a daze. She tried to recall what she had been yelling at him for last night, while lighting up the cigarette in her fingers. Elle couldn't remember, only recollecting that she told him off earlier when she offered to help him with skinning his hunt. Oh well, she did not care in the moment she was in. Smoking and seated by a fire, whatever had bothered her about Daryl yesterday was over and done with. By the way he was acting, he wasn't holding any grudges either. But, she was most certain that he'd do something to piss her off in the next few minutes. It was starting to turn into a cycle. The two were insomniacs and fell asleep last thus the two ending up by the fire every night. Add Merle in the mix to hit on her while stoned on whatever drug he was on, and then have Daryl or Elle say something that would anger the other one. Yelling would occur, and then sleep and repeat.

She could not tell how she felt about Daryl yet if she viewed him as a friend or foe.

_He gives me cigarettes in exchange for fruits?_

That was near the only thing positive about him so far in her eyes, except for his ability to hunt. She admired his outdoor skills and found him to be useful given the situation they were in. He could probably manage to be by himself for the rest of his life on Earth with what he seemed capable of.

_He's giving me a cigarette and will take payment later?_

Well, that meant he at least had a little trust in her. He must view her as at least an acquaintance if he trusted enough to receive his fruits on a later day. Had she promised this a couple days ago, it would have been laughed at and shot down. So, yes, she deduced that Daryl Dixon was not a foe and not a friend, but his own category in itself.

_He was….a Daryl. Hunter, tracker, acquaintance, and source of nicotine._

"Good luck on your hunt tomorrow," Elle broke the silence suddenly feeling obligated to be nice to him as he had to her.

"Luck ain't gonna find me a deer." He removed the cigarette from his mouth and blew out smoke, "But, thanks."

"Where yah gonna sleep when you're out there?" Elle pictured Daryl doing as she had and climbing trees to sleep in, but had a hard time picturing him being petite enough to find a decent branch to get comfortable on.

"Pfft, sleep?" Daryl almost sounded as if he was about to laugh, "If I start tracking something, I won't sleep till I find it."

"You're gonna crash when you get back then. Couple days and no sleep? It makes yah start seeing shit." Elle smirked.

"Can't reckon you didn't sleep for a month when you's was on your own. Well where the hell you sleep?" Daryl extended his arm to point at her, with his cigarette between his fingers. Tiny bits of ash landed on her legs which were straight out in front of her. She let the heel of her shoe make lines in the dirt.

"I climbed trees and slept in them. Probably end up with permanent back problems from it," She laughed, taking a deep inhale of her drag. "But, it kept me safe. Except from the spiders, holy sweet Jesus! I ain't afraid of no bugs but waking up with a spider on your face isn't exactly a calming thought. Near fell outta a tree once cause of it."

"Hate to break it to you, but you don't seem the woodsy type. Can't picture you running around a month in the woods climbing trees." Daryl threw the end of his drag in the fire and crossed his arms. She could faintly see a tattoo on his sleeveless inner upper arm, but it was hidden by the way he was seated.

"I grew up on a farm and we had woods in our backyard. I had three brothers, what do you think we did with our spare time?" She gave a faint smile and then looked to the fire.

Daryl made a noise to signal he heard her, but did not ask anything more. It dawned on her that this was the first time that she gave even a small detail of her life to someone and they did not pry for more information. A small victory smirk appeared on her face now, hidden from Daryl by her intent stare on the fire. If Amy or Glenn or anyone had been outside with her and she told them something as simple as she had lived on a farm, they would have pried so much detail outta her that they would have started asking what crops their family grew in spring. Elle liked being a private person and focusing on present day problems, and ignoring the past life backstories. Perhaps one day she'd feel close enough to some person within the group to consider them a great friend and share her life with them, but it did not seem necessary in the situation she was currently in. Her life wasn't a sap story or anything much different from average people, but never the less it wasn't of such importance or relevance to be shared with every lung breathing human that remained on the planet.

Point being, she silently was thankful in her mind that Daryl seemed to be the same way. He did not share much about his life, unless it was of importance to the conversation. To her mental list of what Daryl was, she could add one more.

_Hunter, tracker, acquaintance, and source of nicotine…silent type._

"I'm off to bed I think," Elle stood up and folded the blanket in her arms. She dusted off the bottom of it, which had picked up dirt from dragging on the ground when she sat with it wrapped around her. "Good night."

"Night…" He mumbled after her.

* * *

When Elle emerged from the RV the next morning, everyone was scattered around camp packing up various things needed for the trip over to Atlanta. Elle walked over to the woods to go to the bathroom and then went by Amy and grabbed breakfast, which consisted of a couple granola bars.

"You be careful today okay?" Amy was saying to Andrea when Elle walked over to them.

"I'll be fine. Glenn knows what he's doing and where he's taking us." Andrea slung a backpack over her shoulder, "You just make sure Dale doesn't have a heart attack when we're gone. He's been talking to me all morning about being careful."

Elle smiled and walked over to Glenn who was going through his own backpack on a fold up chair seated outside the RV. "Nervous?"

"A little. Especially since we're bringing Merle. Don't know how that's gonna work," Glenn said, with his eyes blinking a bit more than normal while looking at Elle.

"I wouldn't worry; it'll cloud your judgment. Just map out in your mind right now where you think you guys should go." Elle reached into the cooler that was near Glenn and removed a bottle of water. She sipped it slowly, swishing the water around in her mouth to remove the cotton mouth feeling.

"Let's get this show on the road boys!" Merle's voice boomed from behind Elle, causing her to slightly jump. Elle remained facing Glenn, giving him a comforting smile.

Suddenly a tiny pain came upon Elle as a hand had slapped her behind. Merle voice immediately followed, "Don't miss me too much girly!"

Elle spun around instantly letting her hand rest on her bottom where it had been hit, "What the _**fuck**_!"

Carl and Sophia both turned their heads at the loud noise coming from Elle, who normally was relatively quiet when they saw her. Carl opened his mouth at the swearing coming from her, as little kids would when they hear a 'bad word'.

Merle broke out into laughter. He was obviously on some sort of drug and the grin on his face looked slanted. "Don't get mad blondie, just saying goodbye."

"You call slapping my ass a goodbye?" Her face grew red hot, as her lips curled into a snarl. "Don't touch me like that again or I swear I'll-"

"You'll what?" Merle's tone dropped, but his creepy smile remained. "Gonna yell for Shane or Glenn to come rough me up?"

Elle clenched her fists by her sides, gathering the material of her jeans within her hand. Daryl emerging from his tent with his crossbow slung over his shoulder. He noticed what was going on and picked up his walking speed. Merle took a step closer to Elle, looking down at her with his tall and menacing stature.

Merle continued speaking, enjoying her frustration. "Gonna give me a proper goodbye? Wouldn't mind a kiss for good luck now would yah?"

Elle raised her hand in the air and slapped Merle as hard as she could across the face.

Merle stood there holding his reddening cheek, shell shocked that someone, a _woman_, hit him

"Oh you fucking bitch!" He cursed up a storm and stepped forward, about to push her. Elle kept glaring daggers and raised her arm for another strike before another hand caught her wrist.

"Elle!" Glenn had appeared out of nowhere. She shook off his grip and turned towards the seething redneck. She saw Shane running towards them behind Merle.

Suddenly another figure emerged between the two. It took a moment for Elle to realize it was Daryl, when she noticed his sleeveless green shirt staring her in the face. He was facing his older brother with his arms up towards Merle to grab his attention and steer it away from the angered blonde behind him.

"Merle it ain't worth it." Daryl followed Merle's movement as he stepped to the left in an attempt to get past Daryl.

"Dumb bitch hit me." Merle glared at her, but backed up.

"He fucking touched me first!" Elle yelled from behind Daryl. She moved her head so she could look over his shoulder to look at Merle. She pointed a finger at him harshly, "Don't you fucking touch me again! Just cause I'm a woman, don't mean you got the right to go around groping me!"

Daryl turned half way so he could look at Merle and Elle at the same time. Shane by this point had reached them and looked at a loss of what to say. He started spurting out words along the lines of 'stop' or 'calm down' but Elle wasn't hearing any of it. She started to step forward and Daryl put a hand up to signal her to keep her distance. She ignored it and took another step towards Merle, "I've had enough of all your filthy comments."

Elle was stopped when Glenn placed a hand on her shoulder, pulling her back. "Elle just drop it, he'll only get angrier." He looked anxious and nervous as anything and Elle relaxed her shoulders. This seemed to please him. "Besides, I'm gonna take the group now. He'll cool off by the time he's back here later tonight."

"Or with the drugs he's on…he'll forget me even hitting him." She mumbled to Glenn as Daryl took his older brother towards their tent for a brief moment to exchange silent words. "Good luck Glenn. I'll make sure you all have a plate for dinner."

Glenn smiled at Elle and patted her on the shoulder, "Thanks."

"I think I owe you a thanks too." Andrea walked over to Elle with a grin on her face. "You don't know how long I've wanted to slap Merle. Thank god I got to see someone do it. Made my morning. Now I'll see you later tonight Elle. Come on Glenn, let's get the cars started."

Glenn and Andrea walked over to the cars, leaving Elle with Shane. "I don't think that was the smartest thing to do-"

"But I-"

"But, regardless….He deserved it." Shane gave her a wink before walking over to the cars to ensure everyone was accounted for. He talked to Glenn a moment and then headed back into camp towards Lori who gave him a nod towards her tent.

Dale had climbed down the ladder to stand next to Elle as they watched the cars pile out of camp towards to city. Daryl silently walked into the woods at this moment as well, causing camp to feel much smaller. With half of its population gone, Elle wondered what her day would entail. In the beginning of the day, Carol took Amy, Lori, and Elle down to the quarry with Shane to do a little bit of laundry. Afterwards at camp, Elle sat in Amy's tent to escape the heat with her.

"I can't believe Merle," Amy said, lying on her sleeping bag with a water bottle pressed against her forehead. "How'd it feel to slap him?"

"Trust me, if I could do it again, I would." Elle laughed.

"How old you think Merle is? He's so creepy." Amy pondered.

"Forties? Late thirties? Daryl looks near thirty and Merle is older than him so, I'm guessing Merle is almost around forty."

Amy shuddered, sitting up and crossing her legs. "I just don't know what I would have done in your situation. I'd probably stammer like an idiot and walk away. He's a bit intimidating to me. Let's go gather some wood. I'm bored of just sitting around here."

The pair left the tent and headed towards the woods, picking up sticks from the leaf covered ground.

"I hope my sister is okay," Amy said as she picked up another stick. "I'm really worried."

"She'll be fine dear, don't you worry one bit. Glenn has everything under control." Elle almost dropped her bundle as she picked up another log. They returned their pile and went out for more.

"I still think you and Glenn-"

"We are dropping this subject before it even begins."

"Fine, Fine…but I-"

"Drooooooping it," Elle smirked. "Or I'll start listing reasons you and him-"

"Point taken." Amy giggled. She turned and raised her brows suggestively. "So you and Merle seem kinda heated…..."

"Now I know you're not serious..." Elle finally let out a laugh as she knelt on the ground grabbing at a stack of sticks around her. "Even if I was completely drunk and he and I were the last humans on earth and had to repopulate the world…Well….You can just kiss the human race goodbye. I'd take full responsibility for its extinction."

Amy broke out into hysterical laughter and they walked back to camp, talking about how disgusting Merle is with his yellow teeth to his balding head. Suddenly the radio which the campers kept on the emergency channel at all times had a fuzzy voice coming in on it. Amy dropped her entire pile of sticks and rushed to it. Elle kept a grip on her sticks and knelt by Amy's side.

"Hey- Hello?" Amy frantically said into the radio. Dale and a couple others ran over to them immediately.

"_Can you hear my voice?"_ The male voice in the radio spoke. Amy smiled at the radio microphone in her hands and looked at Elle for a moment who returned the smile.

_Another living human!_

The thought of it thrilled Elle. Whoever was out there was using technology as well, which meant perhaps electricity somewhere was working or some form of authority was out there. Endless possibilities raced through her head.

"Yes I can hear you! You're coming through. Over." Amy's voice faltered a bit from excitement.

Dale reached them by now and was looking intently at the radio. Static was the response at first, causing apprehensive looks.

"_If anyone reads, please respond,"_ The voice said.

_Shit! It's not working!_

Elle was mentally kicking herself at this point. For so long, she had trained herself to be relatively calm. She trained herself to never expect much out of situations, thereby avoiding disappointment. In a post-apocalyptic world that was easier said than done. Hearing a voice on the radio had made her lose herself for the moment and expect numerous good things to happen. This only ever happened one other time when Elle saw the RV headed towards her. Moving vehicles in sight had caused her to expect whoever was driving to stop and help her. Of course they did, but still she had in that moment lost herself and expected good things. Now currently, life was showing her the downside of doing this. Expecting radio help and another human to be out there to save them all, and the radio doesn't even work.

"_Broadcasting on emergency channel. Will be approaching Atlanta on highway 85. Anybody reads please respond."_ The voice continued, even more so confirming they could not hear Amy's voice.

"We're just outside the city-" Amy paused, her mouth moving trying to think of words to say. "Damn it…" She said in a near whisper, trying to re-click the radio once more. Static continued to play through the speaker.

"Hello?" Her voice started to rise into mild irritation as she spoke, "Hello!? Ugh-" She looked over her shoulder to Dale, "He couldn't hear me. I couldn't warn him!"

Dale pointed at the radio, "Try raising it again." He looked to Shane and pointed at him, "Come on son, you know best how to work this thing."

Lori stood up and watched as Shane dug the axe he was holding in his hands into the wooden stump the radio was on. He knelt by it, grabbing the microphone from Amy's hands. "Hello, hello is the person who called still on the air? This is officer Shane Walsh broadcasting to person unknown, please respond."

Static hummed through the radio, and Shane put down the microphone and looked disappointingly at Lori and Dale. He then looked at the radio and sadly spoke, "He's gone."

A brief moment of silence and disappointing stares, Lori spoke up, "There are others. It's not just us."

Shane said something back to her, but Elle was too distracted in her own thought to hear. She pictured herself walking on the highway to Atlanta just mere days ago. Had she not been stopped by the group that she currently was surrounded by, she'd have walked right into the city. Her survival rate would have been significantly lower.

"I've been saying for a week, we should put signs up to warn people away from the city." Lori placed a hand on her hip, pressing her lips together tightly.

"Folks have no idea what they're getting into," Amy said sadly.

"That's true. Had it not been for you guys, I'd be walking into that death trap." Elle looked to Amy.

Shane sighed and stood up taking his hat in his hands, "We haven't had time."

"I think we need to make time," Lori spoke up.

_Here we go…another argument between those two._

Shane rubbed his mouth and sighed once more, "Yeah well…That's a luxury we can't afford. We are surviving here. We are day to day."

"And who do you propose we send?" Dale tried to sound like a voice of reason.

"I'll go. Give me a vehicle." Lori's voice started to rise as she gave Shane a very harsh stare, while Carl stood behind her looking worried.

"Nobody goes anywhere alone. You know that," Shane said and Elle did not miss that he made eye contact with her as he said this. Shane looked back to Lori who looked at the ground clearly frustrated.

She began to walk away with Carl following her, "Yes sir."

"Hey…Hey!" Shane followed after her, stopping Carl in his tracks, "Go on take a seat bud, yer alright."

"Hey, Carl come help Amy and I get some firewood," Elle offered seeing Shane needed to go comfort Lori. Carl hesitantly obeyed and follow the blondes into the woods. He took a couple sticks in his arms, before looking at Elle as if searching for an answer.

"What is it?" Elle asked.

"I-I need to see my mom. I don't want her leaving here." Carl dropped the sticks and ran back towards camp.

"What do you think is up with Lori and Shane? They fight a lot about little stuff." Amy clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

"You wanna know what I think? I think that Lori and Shane are an item right now." Elle whispered.

"You serious? But Lori is mourning her husband right and Shane was her husband's best friend they-"

"I'm a very observant person Amy," Elle straightened up and walked towards camp with another armful of burning material. "I can see they are doing things that are more than what a friendship entails. Now don't go tellin' no one."

"I-I won't. That's just very odd. They're hiding it good." Amy dropped her pile into the larger stack near the fire pit.

"Not good enough if I picked up on it." Elle teased. "Think I'm gonna go collect some berries from the woods in a moment."

"Think I could come? Lori was saying she wanted someone to go find some mushrooms earlier."

Elle hesitated, but agreed. "Must let you know though, I've been kinda bad."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked as she grabbed a pail. Elle reached for her tin out of her backpack and left the pack behind on a fold up chair.

"I haven't been sharing the fruits I find…I kinda been trading them." Elle admitted as the two walked back into the woods, searching the ground they passed.

"For what?"

"Cigarettes. Daryl gives me smokes in exchange for some of what I find."

"Those are bad for you!" Amy tsked.

"No shit?" Elle tried to sound serious, before chuckling. "I just don't want people getting upset of my lack of sharing. I would, I just…dunno…I really like cigarettes. I quit a while back, but given the circumstances. I ain't worried 'bout dying from lung cancer."

"I understand," Amy found a couple mushrooms and collected them into her pail. "I won't tell no one, just so people don't get the wrong idea. I don't judge yah. Hell if I found a large candy bar out here, I dunno if I'd share it with anyone…even my sister!"

"I won't tell her you said that," Elle put a hand over her heart to mock the sincerity of the situation.

* * *

Returning to camp a couple hours later, Amy had a bucket full of mushrooms and Elle had enough fruit that would ensure repayment to Daryl and then some. With the amount she found, she could try to barter half a pack she figured. She silently cursed at the thought of not having a cigarette tonight as Daryl said he was going to be gone a couple days.

Amy looked around, "Andrea?"

Dale looked up from working on his RV with Jim, "They're not back yet."

"What! They've been gone longer than normal. They should be back by now." Amy placed her bucket down and began to pace. Elle sat down on a log and watched her unsure of what to say. For the next hour, Elle tried her best to distract Amy by intentionally asking her questions about her life back home. Amy told her of her house up north and the dogs she had, even started talking about dates she went on. Eventually after Elle could only ask so many more questions, Amy began to pace again. Elle went inside of the RV and grabbed a book. She returned outside and started to read by the fire pit, which Shane was lighting up as the afternoon glow started to fill the sky.

"It's getting late, they should have been back by now." Amy suddenly yelled once more.

Dale looked over at her while fiddling with something in the RV hood, "Worrying won't make it better."

Defeated, Amy sat next to Elle and remained silent, watching the logs catch fire. Shane walked over to Carl and began to teach him how to tie knots with spare rope he had found lying on the ground. Amy tapped her feet on the ground, distracting Elle from the sentence she was trying to read causing her to reread the same passage over a couple times, before finally giving up and resting a hand on Amy's shoulder.

"Don't worry. More people means more time it takes." Elle tried to reason.

"_Hello base camp."_ The radio suddenly sprang to life once more and everyone in the immediate area rushed to it. It sounded like T Dog's voice. The radio was on top of the RV and Dale climbed the ladder to it. The rest stood below waiting to hear what was going to be said. _"Can anybody out there here me?"_

"Hello? Hello? Receptions bad on this, please repeat!" Dale rushed into the microphone.

"_Shane is that you?"_ It responded. The radio buzzed more static as Dale flicked the knobs around trying to make it come in clear _"e-…..an…..erp…we're trapped in the department store."_

"He said they're trapped…" Jim said.

Elle could see Amy out of the corner of her eye place a hand to her mouth, trying to hold it together. _"Geeks all over the place….hundreds of them. We're surrounded!"_

"T Dog?!" Dale tried to call back. "T Dog, repeat that last thing. Repeat!"

With nothing but another static response, Lori spoke up. "He said the department store. Shane?"

"No way. We do not go after them. We do not risk the rest of the group….y'all know that." Shane's eyes were wide as he darted his gaze around at the people surrounding him.

"So we're just gonna leave her there!?" Amy near shouted.

"Amy I know that….this is not easy," Shane tried to sound emphatic.

"She volunteered to go, to help the rest of us!" Amy shouted back.

"She knew the risk right?" Shane bit his lip, "So she's trapped. She's gone. So we just gotta deal with that. There's nothing we can do."

Amy paused, looking at him with wide eyes. It looked to Elle as if there were tears forming on the brim of her eyes, but her face suddenly turned into a sour gaze as she lowered her brow, "She's my sister, you son of bitch!"

Amy ran off towards the fire pit and Lori gave Shane a harsh glare before running after her. Elle remained where she stood and looked over at Shane, who met her eyes. She held contact with him for only a matter of seconds, but the look within his eyes was one she recognized. His eyes went back in search of Lori, who was walking over to a log with a pair of scissors.

"Amy wants to be alone for right now. Carl, over here baby! Gonna give you a haircut." She sounded exhausted.

Shane's eyes met Elle's for one more moment, before he sat across from Lori and started cleaning his gun.

_He seems only interested in Lori's protection…._ She thought to herself as she folded her arms across her chest. Elle sat down by the fire pit once more and picked up the book she left there.

_Glenn…Andrea…T Dog…Jacqui…Morales…._

A sudden pang came to her stomach at the thought of them not returning, but she immediately realized the emotion coming forth and put a stop to it. Deciding to get more wood for the fire, even though clearly the pile was high enough, she grabbed the nearest axe and began violently chopping at tree branches a little ways into the woods. Nothing distracted her more than feeling the vibrations of steel hitting wood and breaking it apart. She half wished a walker was around that she could tear up. After cutting up enough logs to last all tomorrow as well, she sat back down feeling a bit exhausted. Her eyes scanned over camp and she saw Carl was fidgeting against Lori's grip. She was continuing to give him a haircut. She could barely make out what Shane was saying to Carl. Something about teaching him to catch frogs tomorrow to eat.

_Ew….I'll eat many things in life, but frogs?_ Frogs were something she used to catch back home with her brothers. They often would line them up a clearing and see whose frog could make it to the other side of the field first. Elle often would lose, as she would end up petting her frog and holding it when it went the wrong direction instead of hitting it like her brothers did.

Suddenly a car alarm filled her eardrums as it echoed throughout the mountain side. She stood up and looked around as everyone in camp became alert. Amy emerged from her tent and stood near Elle with her arms crossed. The pair looked at one another, before walking towards Lori.

_Pew! Pew! PEW! PEW! PEW!_

"Talk to me Dale!" Shane ran towards to RV, where Dale was seated on the roof looking through his binoculars.

"Can't tell yet." Dale was squinting.

"Is it them!?" Amy sounded desperate. "Are they back?"

"I'll be damned…." Dale muttered.

"Was is it?" Amy's eyes were practically bulging out of her head.

"Stolen car is my guess."

The group watched as a red sports car pulled into camp roughly, mustering up the dirt beneath it tires. The alarm still echoed loudly with flashing headlights blinding Elle. She moved to the left a little to avoid the lights blinding stare and watched as the driver emerged from the car with a huge grin on his face.

_Glenn!_

"Holy crap! Turn that damn thing off!" Dale yelled.

Glenn lifted his hands up in defeat, "I don't know how!" he yelled over the sound.

Shane tried to talk to Glenn about how to turn it off, but Amy rushed over to Glenn. A mix of voices were overpowered by the car alarm and confusion occurred. "My sister, where is she? She safe?!"

Amy was near hysterics as she continued to question Glenn, even after being told Andrea was safe. Glenn kept repeating himself as Jim finally got the car's noise to stop. Elle stood observantly by Dale's side with her arms crossed.

_Oh boy_… Emotions took over logical judgment of people and almost annoyed Elle currently. Sure, Amy was upset by her sister's missing in action status, but if Amy wanted answers she could simply wait until the current problem of a car alarm, which could attract walkers, was solved. Talking over Shane and an alarm was useless. Survival was key. Solve the problem at hand first; ask questions later, was also in Elle's agenda. Not being used to having to care about dozens of people's where abouts, it was hard for her to empathize with Amy. Amy was, a wreck missing her sister. Elle already lost people in the initial outbreak and did not want anyone remotely close enough to her again to feel sad about loss. Keeping her life private from them was her first attempt to keep her relationship with the group strictly survival based.

This of course was easier said than done. Already at the thought of half the group being lost in Atlanta caused a tiny emotion out of her, which she had to keep at bay and dismiss. She successfully did and turned to anger to deal with it by chopping at trees, but she knew if she stuck around much longer, it would be difficult not to grow attached to the people surrounding her.

She walked to Glenn's side and patted him on the shoulder. "Glad you made it back. How'd it go?" She smiled at him.

"Oh boy, do I have stories for you!" Glenn eyed his new car. "And look at this beauty!"

"Must admit, I am not a car person," Elle said with a smile as she too looked over the car, "But it is nice."

Other families hugged at the return of their loved ones. Jacqui and T Dog approached Elle and Glenn and nodded. They stood by and watched as Morales called for someone else who was in the van.

_Helicopter boy?_

A man in a police uniform walked over with his hands on his hips looking at the ground. He was tall, slender, and average looking. He suddenly stopped, staring at something past Elle and Glenn. Elle turned and saw it was at Lori and Carl. The man looked like he was seeing a ghost. Elle looked to Shane who had on the same expression. In utter confusion, she looked to Glenn who raised an eyebrow obviously not understanding either.

"DAD!" Carl shouted and everything made sense.

_Maybe, I'll stay a little longer with this group then….._

* * *

Around the fire later that night, after Glenn and Rick explained everything that had happened to them, the air within camp felt strange to Elle. One thought she couldn't keep out of her mind was the fact Lori and Shane had obviously done some intimate things earlier within camp and now Lori's husband was back. Really made for an awkward friendship and love triangle, she presumed. Shane all night was giving a look that was between disbelief and disappointment. Only Lori, Elle, and anyone else who was smart enough to catch on would know why Shane seemed out of it. Rick seemed nice in Elle's eyes. She could not imagine what it would be like to wake up in the middle of the outbreak. Dealing with it from day one, was something that had allowed her to prepare herself. Lori laid her head on Rick's shoulder and sighed happily. Amy and Andrea were huddled against one another to the left of Elle and Glenn was seated beside her as thunder echoed the air.

"Have you given any thought to Daryl Dixon?" Dale's voice broke Elle's spacey demeanor. The mention of Daryl had piqued her interest. "He won't be happy to hear his brother got left behind."

Upon finding out Merle was left behind, apart from the joy of never having the creep touch her again, she felt a weird sensation in her gut. When Daryl returned things were not going to be pretty. They were brothers and if in the same situation, Elle would have fought tooth and nail to get her brother back from the city. She wondered if Daryl would run off alone and abandon the group or start killing everyone. If he grew angry from someone critiquing him on his hunt, then this would be a whole other ball game.

"I'll tell him." T Dog offered. He was still glum. "I dropped the key, it's on me."

"I cuffed him. That makes him mine." Rick patted Carl on the head.

"Guys," Glenn spoke from Elle's side. "It's not a competition. Don't mean to throw race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

_Funny,_ Elle thought, _Daryl never showed any sign of being a horrible racist yet. It had all been Merle so far with the racist comments, but I guess people just assume through affiliation. Although the group had been around the Dixons longer, so they know better._

"We could lie!" Amy offered.

"We'll tell the truth. Merle was out of control," Andrea assured. "Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed."

"The man was on drugs in the middle of the end of the world. He was violent and careless. I hate to say, but he's better off not with us." Elle spoke up.

"Your husband did what was necessary and if Merle got left behind it is nobody's fault." Andrea looked at Lori.

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" Dale looked in disbelief. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that. Do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

Elle ran scenarios through her head of Daryl reacting to the news. All of them ended with someone dead.

After everyone was settled with who what going to tell Daryl, slowly the group went to their tents to sleep. Elle as always, stayed by the dying fire side, but with no one around her. In that moment she sort of missed Daryl's silent company and supply of cigarettes. She reached into her backpack and grabbed her fruit tin. Eating a couple off the top, she wished she had her nicotine at the current moment. The day felt off without being insulted by Merle or Daryl. Yelling was a form of communication she excelled in and the brothers did as well. Looking around the empty campsite, she kicked at the dirt and sighed.

Still up in the air about whether or not to leave the group eventually, Elle stomped out the fire.

The next morning, Elle walked out of the RV to see Glenn standing by his newly stolen car which was being picked apart by Jim and Dale. Rick was standing by Glenn, so Elle stood on his other side and watched the men work on the car.

"Look at them," Glenn said with dismay. "Vultures. Go on strip it clean."

Dale patted Glenn on the shoulder, "Sorry Glenn. Need every drop of fuel we can get."

"Wish I could have driven it a few more days." Glenn muttered to Rick and Elle.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one, one day." Rick patted his shoulder and walked towards Lori who was folding clothes.

"You think he's alright?" Elle asked Glenn.

"Yeah, he seems real nice." Glenn gave her a smile and turned her around with his hand to walk towards a crate of food they had. They picked up a couple snacks and sat down in folding chairs. "What you think about all this?"

"I think…he's nice…But Daryl sure as hell ain't gonna think that," Elle said in between bites. "I think Daryl is gonna view him as the enemy, but if everything is as you said-...Merle needed to be cuffed up there. Merle is on coke or sumthan'….he woulda killed us all on a bad drug trip."

"Oh, and here I thought you liked Merle." Glenn teased.

"Yeah, I loved when that redneck felt me up. Was thinkin' 'bout marrying him even." Elle smiled as she pushed her water bottle to her lips, spilling a little on her legs.

"Elle Dixon. I can see it now," Glenn said as he lifted his hands in the air to write out the words.

Elle playfully shoved the side of Glenn. "Shut up. Ain't that funny."

"It's funny till Daryl gets back." Glenn sipped his own drink. "Then, we never speak of this again."

"Agreed." Elle laughed.

A blood curdling scream broke the conversation as Carl and Sophia yelled for their parents. Glenn quickly grabbed his gun and Elle grabbed her bat as they raced towards the screaming children. Carl and Sophia were grabbed by their mothers who were inspecting them for bites. Jacqui pointed beyond them and the rest of the group rushed through a bit of trees to a small clearing. A walker was there eating the remains of a dead dear. He hadn't noticed the group behind him forming, and continued to eat on guts of the carcass. Amy and Andrea appeared last, gasping at the sight and clinging to one another. The gasp alerted the walker who looked up at the group. It stood up and let out a growl focusing on Rick who was closest to him. Rick swung his block of wood at the walker, knocking him to the ground. With that everyone, including Elle, used their weapons to hit the decaying person. Elle managed to throw in a couple good swings of her bat towards the walker's chest. Dale threw in the final blow by chopping the head off. Amy and Andrea remained huddled back, looking on in disgust. Elle took note of being the only female that was attacking the creature and by the faces on the two blondes nearby deduced that everyone else was squeamish. The group breathed heavily as the adrenaline wore off and they stared at their victim.

A sudden rustling in the bushes alerted everyone to look up and Shane pointed his gun towards the noise.

_Another walker?_

The sound continued for a moment, before a crossbow wielding figure appeared from behind the bush. Daryl looked surprised to be seeing the end of a gun pointed at him. Shane lowered the gun muttering a curse word or two. Daryl then registered the walker's corpse on the ground and the deer.

"Son of a bitch," He said, his voice slowly rising at each syllable. "That's _my_ deer!"

He walked over to the corpse of his hunt, his lips pressed inward obviously holding in anger. He had been on a hunt for days and now his game was ruined from a walker. He had a string of squirrels slung over his shoulder. The tails swished as he walked, "Awh, look at it. All gnarled on by this-" He started to kick the dead corpse in between each word. "filthy….disease bearing….motherless...bastard!"

He spoke in between his teeth, clutching his crossbow tightly.

"Calm down son. That's not helping," Dale spoke.

_Wrong choice of words,_ Elle thought, seeing Daryl's face twitch into a reddened anger filled state. He walked quickly over to Dale, getting in his face. "What do you know 'bout it old man?! You take that stupid hat off and go back to _On Golden Pond." _He sighed and knelt by the deer removing a couple of his arrows from it, "Been tracking this deer for miles! Was gonna bring it back to camp and cook us up some venison."

_This is not going to be Daryl's day once he finds out about Merle. If this is his reaction to a deer… _

"What you think? We can cut around this…chewed up part right here?" Daryl asked. He met Elle's eyes for a moment, before looking at the rest of the group seeking an answer.

"I would not risk that," Shane said while resting his gun behind his shoulders.

Daryl sighed. "It's a damn shame. I got some squirrel, 'bout a dozen or so. It'll have to do." He looked around at the group once more, as he put his arrows into his makeshift quiver.

The head of the walker they killed suddenly opened its mouth, clearly still alive. Amy made a noise of disgust and took her sister away from the scene.

"Come on people what the hell?" Daryl loaded his crossbow and pointed it at the head. He shot and hit the head right in its eye socket. Using his foot to assist the removal of it, he wiped off the arrow. "Got be the brain. Don't y'all know nothing?"

Daryl did not seem to care for introductions to the newest member of the group, Rick. He walked past everyone towards camp and Elle knew the shit storm was about to occur. Rick looked at Shane and Glenn before following Dixon to camp. Elle was unsure if she wanted to see what was to occur next. She stood next to Glenn.

"Maybe we should get outta here for a little?" She offered. "Daryl is gonna go crazy in a matter of minutes."

"Merle?" She heard Daryl yell.

"Oh yeah, fuck this. I think now is a good time to go down to the quarry." Elle started to walk in the opposite direction.

Glenn stopped her by placing a hand on her arm. "No, we have to see what is going to happen. If Daryl leaves, I wanna know what's going on."

Elle sighed and turned towards Glenn, "Fine. But if he comes after you I ain't saving yer ass."

* * *

Sitting down by the quarry, doing laundry with the rest of the females, Elle could honestly say her day was nothing short of eventful. Seeing how Daryl reacted to Rick telling him about Merle was exactly as she expected, although drawing the knife was different. She nearly thought Daryl was going to be shot by Shane. She did not speak to Daryl or comfort anyone during this time, merely standing back and watching it take place. After which, the group took off for Atlanta once more much to the protest of Lori and Shane. After that the females decided to distract themselves with laundry and then Ed slapped Carol right in front of everyone and Shane beat him up.

_Yeah, eventful day…._

Elle found Carol to be a bit of an odd person for sticking with an abusive husband. She knew it happened all the time and that it was a psychological disorder for her to stick with him, but it wasn't her place to step in and tell Carol to stand up for herself. That was something she'd have to figure out on her own. Of course that wasn't to say Elle didn't yell at Ed. She hit him and batted at his backside like the other women when he was trying to grab Carol, but she didn't agree with Carol's choice to go comfort him.

Returning to camp, Amy and Andrea suggested to Dale to let them use his old fishing lines as they wanted to bring the canoe out on the quarry. Dale agreed and helped them take the boat down the path. Elle remained at camp and played cards with Sophia and Carl for an hour. During that time Dale had noticed Jim was digging holes repeatedly and Shane had decided to tie him up. Obviously he was suffering from heat exhaustion. Yes, Elle couldn't help but wonder when the odd string of events would end for the day. Lori came over to the three of them and joined in a card game. Lori and Elle talked a little during the time about Carl and little things about his life.

Morales started laughing happily, which caused Elle and Lori to look up to see Amy and Andrea returning with a huge amount of fish in their hands. "Check it out!"

Lori and Elle started clapping for the two and Carol gave a nod, looking up from her sewing.

"Ladies, because of you, my family will eat tonight!" Morales smiled.

"Mom look at all the fish!" Carl excitedly cheered.

Andrea showed the fish to Lori, who leaned back and laughed not wanting to be near the dead fish, "Thank you. Where'd you two learn to do that?"

Elle smiled and walked over to the fire to put a couple logs on it. Amy sat down next to her after a couple minutes.

"You think they're doing alright in Atlanta?" Amy asked.

"Sure they are. Rick's made it this far, Glenn knows the city, T Dog is a tough son of a bitch, and Daryl well….I'm sure he's tearing down all the walls in the city looking for his brother. I ain't worried 'bout them. They know what they're doing."

Morales walked over and started putting rocks around the fire pit. Elle and Amy offered to help, as his idea was with the rocks there, the flames would be hidden and bigger. That chore took around an hour to complete and the sun was starting to set over the mountain tops. A couple people joined in to help cut up and cook the fish the sisters caught. The mood of the night was fairly positive, with everyone talking about fishing and how good the food was. Only a couple times would someone mention how they thought the Atlanta group was doing. Lori seemed the most worried of everyone, with Shane by her side trying to ease her concerns. Talk about Dale's watch lifted a couple people's spirits as he tried to keep the group's humanity alive. She liked Dale a lot by this point. Elle found him to be the voice of reason in situations as well as good advice giver. She looked to her left at the spot Glenn normally sat and her mind wandered to the Atlanta group once more.

_This is crazy…I have to leave tomorrow…_

She was starting to actually be worried about the group. It was too much of an emotional burden and besides with the large group they were in, she was bound to be in more danger. Tomorrow, if the group in Atlanta had not returned, she'd be leaving.

"Hey Elle," Amy said nudging her side. "Don't worry. You said yourself that the group is fine."

_Yeah that settles it…_

Amy had picked up on one single moment where Elle let her emotional wall down even for a second. The look on Elle's face must have given it away. She silently cursed herself, but managed to smile at Amy. "I'm not worried, just missing Glenn asking if I am gonna finish what's on my plate."

She gained a chuckle from Amy, who then stood up to use the bathroom. Once she was inside, Andrea pulled out a necklace from her pocket and showed it to Elle. "I got this for her. Tomorrow is her birthday."

"Oh wow," Elle remarked eyeing the mermaid on the end of it. "She'll love it. I'll have to give her some fruits or something!"

"I wonder if she even has forgotten it's her birthday tomorrow. She has made no mention of it." Andrea put the necklace back in her pocket.

"We're out of toilet paper?" Amy yelled from the threshold of the RV.

Suddenly a decaying walking corpse emerged from the side of the RV and grabbed onto Amy's arm. It proceeded to bite into her flesh, erupting a flow of blood to fall out of her wound. She fell to the ground screaming.

Screams came from every direction. The group stood up, grabbing hold of their weapons.

Elle grabbed her bat tightly, eyes darting around as walkers started to appear from every direction. She saw Amy being biten again on her neck, before her vision was blocked by Shane who started firing his gun everywhere. Slowly the group was starting to get surrounded and Elle looked for a way out. A walker appeared before her with teeth gnarling at her. It jumped towards her, in an attempt to bite her.

_Oh fuck no! _

* * *

Okay, well I found Daryl to be pretty absent in this chapter, but hey! First couple episodes he was away at camp. After this chapter, the plot line will take off. I watch the episodes as I type certain parts. Pausing a lot to get the dialogue right and if for some reason I can't make out what the actor says, well I get the overview of what they say. There are a couple episodes coming up where the major plot line is happening but what Daryl does throughout that episode is kinda unknown so I'll fill that it.

Anyways please review! This one took forever. I normally do 10,000 word chapters, but this one ended up near 14,000. Whoops! Thanks ahead of time for your review! It brings a smile to my face! Thank my beta Sydney too! She scans my chapters for errors as well as helps me with figuring out plotlines, things to occur, ect. And she's my best friend duh!


	4. The Gun Greenhorn

Happy holidays! Sadly for me my laptop is broken, so I have not been able to type at all. In fact I am able only to type this chapter because I am on a friend's laptop. It was really tragic. I was typing a 20 page paper for my college final exam and well, the computer shut off on me and now will not turn back on. Retyping it really put a damper on my day. So here we go.

* * *

Elle swung with all her might at a walker that was headed towards her. The decaying corpse stumbled backwards a bit, but continued forward with its arms outstretched towards her. She swung at it again until it fell to the ground. Before she had time to hit it in the head to ensure its death, another walker came from off to the right. She took a hard step forward, purposely driving her foot into the skull of the walker on the ground, and then swung her bat towards the walker, knocking it down as well. Morales suddenly drove a stick through the brain of the walker she knocked down and started swinging at another walker that was trying to attack Shane.

Screams were filling the air and Elle felt disoriented. Her guard had been down ever since meeting up with these people. A false sense of security had been felt surrounded by other living humans, so thus the attack of a massive amount of walkers did not seem real. She glanced over her shoulder as everything seemed to be going in slow motion. It felt as if a gun had gone off right next to her ear and everything was muffled to her.

Had she stayed by herself, she'd have been safely sleeping in a tree away from the danger. She wouldn't be feeling a pang of sadness in her side watching the walkers eating away at her friends. She wouldn't have even run into a pack of walkers as she would be off surviving out of sight. It was in that exact moment that she regretted joining the group completely.

In yet another instance of her guard being let down, she was suddenly face to face with a walker to her left. Not expecting the corpse to be that close, her bat would not properly lift in time. She threw her hands up to push away the walker, but it countered the push and it ended up falling on top of her. Her bat flung from her hand and she used the free hand to push at its face. Teeth snapping at her, a panicked scream left her throat. Struggled and hitched grunts left her throat as she pushed her hips forward in an attempt to throw off the rotting corpse. She managed to get her left leg free and she rolled herself on her side, flipping the walker to be underneath her. With frantic hands, she took the gun from her pocket and tried to shoot the walker, but fumbled with the safety. Pulling the trigger, she found it was not going off. _FUCK! Safety! Take the safety off! How the fuck do I? SHIT_- a few more fumbled attempts, the walker latched its hands to her arm, trying to pull her down to meet its teeth. Giving up on shooting, she then used the gun's handle to attack at the walker's skull. It took a few hits to it to cause a gash to open on the walker's forehead. Every hit after that sent dark brown blood on her clothing and face. The blood hit her lips, and she tightly pressed them together to avoid it going in her mouth.

Without time to even think, Elle was back on her feet faced with three walkers headed her direction. Her breath was nearly as loud as the screams coming from her right, as she tried desperately to get the gun in her hands to work. Her fingers slipped on the blood covering it and her eyes darted down to it. Still having no idea how to use the gun, she decided her best option was to run. She sprinted towards the trees and jumped on a couple of low branches. She tucked the gun into her waistline and gripped the branch tightly. She pushed her upper body higher. A walker grabbed at her ankle, causing her to slip on the branch was going to grab. Her arm tangled itself around the next branch she could find, causing various cuts to form along it. She held on tightly as she kicked downwards at the walker grabbing at her. Feeling her leg was free, she climbed higher out of reach. Looking down she saw the walkers that had followed her suddenly became interested in a person that was running by them.

Guns were going off every direction and Elle swore she suddenly heard Rick's voice yelling.

_Are they back?_ She thought, trying to catch her breath. Remaining in the tree until the guns started to wear down, she wiped her fingers across her chin and lips to smear off the blood. Seeing her fingers were covered in it as well, she took the end of her shirt and lifted it up to her face to wipe it off with the cloth. Elle spit out a couple times, paranoid of the blood entering her mouth. She looked herself over and saw nearly every couple of inches was spots of blood covering her. Most of it was the walker's, but here and there held fresh red blood seeping out of cuts she acquired during the struggle.

A very loud desperate cry of pain caused her to climb out of the tree.

Emerging from the woods, a couple people met her eyes as they gathered around Amy's body being cradled by Andrea. The woman was crying out loudly mourning the loss in her very hands. Elle felt a pang in her stomach and looked away. A few tried to approach Andrea to comfort her, but she shooed them away harshly.

Elle sat in shock on the log she had been seated on earlier before this attack occurred. Glenn in the same obvious state of shock sat next to Elle, only he had tears visible in his eyes. Elle kept her face blank and her lips pressed firmly together, but the pain she felt on the inside was very much hurting her stomach.

"I-I-…" Glenn tried to speak, but choked on his own words.

"Did you get bit?" A voice sternly said behind her. Daryl had his crossbow still drawn and now pointed at Elle.

"No I-.." She looked down at herself, the firelight showing her a better view of the massive amounts of blood covering her. "…most of this is walker blood. The few that is mine is just cuts from the trees and rocks. I wasn't bit."

"You sure?" Rick said, emerging to the side of Daryl. His tone was much more comforting and concerned, rather than the alert harshness of Daryl. She was positive if she was bit, that Daryl would not hesitate to put her out right then and there.

Elle simply nodded her head, before turning her gaze to Glenn, who had tears streaming down his face. She wasn't exactly sure how to comfort him or how to deal with this situation at all, but she knew everything had changed at this point. She actually cared that the man next to her was in tears. She cared that Amy was dead. She cared about the lives of the people around her, even though she did not want to or even was able to show it currently.

One thing was for certain in that moment though as she looked over Glenn's shoulder to Andrea who was tearfully hugging the unmoving corpse of her sister…..

…Elle was going to stay with the group.

There was no way around it. She wasn't happy about it, but she could not bring herself to leave after this moment.

"We gotta do something 'bout the bodies." Shane lowered his gun, rubbing his chin. His beady eyes darted around at the bodies strewn about throughout the camp, some walkers and other their own people.

"We could burn 'em." Daryl suggested, his crossbow now lowered from Elle.

"No." Glenn sniffled. "We can't burn these people! They're our friends! We bury them!" He stood up raising his voice the more he spoke.

Rick looked at the ground and then back to his wife who was holding onto their son tightly, crying. "We bury our own and burn the rest. How 'bout that?"

Glenn did not answer, instead headed towards the RV obviously trying to contain himself.

"Can't do it with no sun Rick. We should wait till morning to do that." Shane looked over a body that belonged to a fellow camper. He frowned at it before standing up straight and leaning on his gun like a cane.

"Ain't no way anyone is going to sleep tonight. We could at least move the bodies of the walkers into a pile. We'll light it in the morning. We gotta take a tally of who's passed away." Rick's tone stayed very calm and still, but it was obvious that he was shaken up.

"Elle, you should go wash up. Can't be good that walker blood is all on yer skin." Shane looked her over and then to the group. His eyes scanned a little before pointing at Daryl. "Can you go with her to the lake? See if there's any stragglers 'round there too and take care of 'em?"

Daryl simply nodded, which Elle almost found odd. _Almost. _Normally a remark would come out of his mouth about 'babysitting' or even a remark would come out of _her _mouth about 'handling herself', but given the circumstance, neither felt like the idea was a bad one.

Elle stood up and headed towards the RV, "Just gotta grab a spare set of clothes. Be right out."

Daryl nodded, placing his crossbow down to help Shane carry a couple walker's bodies to a pile off to the left of the RV. Elle had to walk right by Andrea, who now remained unmoving watching her sister's body. Elle did not even attempt to speak to her, instead brushing past her. Glancing at Amy's body caused her fists to clench to her sides. She swallowed the lump in her throat and entered the vehicle. Glenn was seated at the table. She could tell due to the moon creating a small amount of light for them. Elle felt her way to the table and reached into one of the cabinets for a flashlight. She flicked it on, shining it accidently into his eyes. She fumbled through her backpack for a set of clothes and a small sliver of soap. Pulling out a pair of jeans and a blue tanktop, she was about to turn to leave to RV, but met Glenn's eyes. The pangs in her stomach grew more painful at each passing second. Against her normal mannerisms, Elle sat across from Glenn and placed a hand on his giving a comforting squeeze- …

..-trying her best to appear empathetic to him. She did feel mournful for the deaths, but her current mind wanted to be alone, away from everyone who was crying and sad. Unable to think of any words to say, she silently left the RV.

She walked over to Daryl, who had her bat in his hands. "This yours I'm assuming."

She took it from him with her free hand and saw it was covered with blood on every inch of it. "Thanks. Shall we?"

The cries of everyone started to become distant as the two walked the path to the lake. Elle realized that in fact being with Daryl in this moment was as good as it got to being alone. It certainly was away from everyone who was showing their depressed emotions up at camp. She refused to let herself become so emotional that tears would come out of her eyes. That would be her ultimate defeat. It already was enough that she actually cared and decided to stay with the group. But becoming weak with emotions to cloud judgment? She'd prefer a bullet to her brain. Crying did nothing but lower a person's guard and make them useless. She let her guard down twice today and she vowed to never let it happen again.

"When did you guys get here?" Elle asked, keeping her flashlight low to the ground to avoid attracting any straggling walker that was nearby.

"Tail end of it, I suppose. Amy was already on the ground when we got here. Saw you runnin' into the woods." Daryl kept his bow drawn and pointed it around at any small sound that he heard.

"I'm not used to so many of them trying to attack me." She admitted, her voice was low. "Before this group, I'd just remain out of sight or avoid the masses. Trying to defend a base camp unexpectedly is new to me." She paused, letting her tongue slide against her lip. Trying to change the subject away from her flaws, she realized she had not seen Merle with them. "Your brother?"

Daryl did not answer right away and Elle saw he kept his eyes on the ground for a moment, before meeting hers. It was obvious he was sad, his eyes showing hints of it, but his tone remained low. "We went to the roof and only found his hand."

"What!?" Elle said a little bit louder than she meant to.

"He cut his hand off to escape. Musta thought we wasn't comin' back fer him," Daryl spoke quietly. "We looked for him more, but Glenn was kidnapped."

"Wait….what…"

"Are you fucking deaf or something?" Daryl's irritated tone was returning to normal, the shock evidently starting to wear off of him.

"He didn't mention-"

"Well how the hell he gonna tell you when half the people we are living 'round is dead? That seemed priority." Daryl let out a 'pfft' noise. They reached the lake at this point and Elle flashed the light around the area looking for walkers.

"So what happened? He's obvious okay, I know, but-"

"That isn't good enough of story? You wanna know every damn detail? Point is he's fine. Merle's out there alive somewhere and stole our truck, so that's why we was late comin' back." He snapped. "We had tah walk." Daryl walked over to a rock and sat on it, resting his crossbow on his lap. "Now get on with your washing off so we can go back, woman."

_It's obvious he just is mad about Merle at this point._ She thought to herself as she placed the flashlight, clothes, and baseball bat on the rock next to him. While removing the gun from her waistband she said, "Well sorry, if I wanted to know what happened to my friend. Glad your brother is at least alive."

"To hell you actually mean that," Daryl scoffed.

"I don't wish death upon the living, even if I don't like them, Daryl. Shut the fuck up for a damn minute." She grabbed the clothes and her bat. "And stay the hell over here while I go into the water, would yah?"

"The fuck guy you think I am? Ed?" He spat, obviously offended.

"Sorry, Jesus Christ…." She walked a couple feet towards the water and stood behind a taller looking rock away from Daryl. "All I asked was what happened to Glenn, don't have to get all mad 'bout it."

She took off her shirt, smearing more blood on her face doing so. After a couple moments of silence, except for the sound of her clothing being thrown to the ground, Daryl spoke, "Couple guys got him. We thought they was a gang or somethan'. Ended up being men protecting these old folks who were abandoned by the doctors in a retirement center, that thought we was looters or something. Rick gave 'em some guns and we got Glenn back. Happy?" His voice was a bit louder than before so she could hear him from where she was standing behind the rock.

Elle slowly walked into the water, taking her bat with her to wash off the blood on it. The water caused goose bumps to appear immediately over her skin. It chilled her spine and she hesitantly walked deeper into the water. "Happy isn't the word. Just glad _he's _okay…"

Amy's body lying motionless on the ground flashed through her mind. The blood had covered her shoulder and shirt. The very clothing that she had just taken off had belonged to Amy.

_"I'm sure you could fit into something of mine. Once we get to camp we can change." Amy smiled at her._

_"I have a few extra shirts. You look my size," Amy eyed her over once, "Although I have big hips-"_

_"You're crazy, look at you!" Elle pointed to Amy's lower figure, "I'd kill for hips like yours. I got a __little extra fat on my sides." She placed her hands on her hip bones looking down at herself._

_"You have muscle. Don't you start calling__ that__ fat," Amy giggled._

It felt as if tears were about to form on the edge of her eyelids, so quickly Elle snapped her mind away from memories. She preferred to resort to anger instead of grief. She hit the water hard with her hand, sending water splashing in all directions, "Fucking stupid to have a camp out here in the open! We need to move the fuck out of here and somewhere safe."

"The hell is safe now a day? You got a place, say it. If not, just deal with what we got right now." He sounded irritated at Elle's random outburst. She heard him shifting in his seat.

"A building seems more logical than out in the open." Elle threw her bat to shore and worked on her body. She scrubbed at her arms with the tiny bit of soap while Daryl remained silent. Unable to see herself, proved the washing experience to be more difficult than expected. She couldn't tell if she got all the blood off her, but after a couple dunks of her head underwater, the freezing chill of her body was more than enough to cause her to get out. She felt around for the dry clothing that she had left on the shore and placed them hastily on. Elle decided to leave behind the bloody clothes, holding too many memories of Amy to them and being stained with walker blood. She heard a small chuckle from Daryl, who obviously found it amusing that she was tripping on her way back to him.

"You decent?" He asked.

"Yeah, yeah….Turn the light on."

He flicked on the flashlight and Elle rung out her hair between her fingers. She started shivering from the air. How it could be so warm in the day and so chilly at night was beyond her, but that was southern weather. Some nights, true it could be a very comfortable temperature, but adding in the water soaking her body head to toe, it made Elle shake. She rubbed the sides of her arms and grabbed her gun. Daryl noticed that she was cold, but made no comment about it.

She looked at her gun and cursed, seeing it still had pieces of brain matter on it. "Hang on, I gotta wash this off."

Daryl eyed it, pointing the flashlight to it. He followed her to the water's edge, "I'm assuming you didn't use that for its intended purpose."

Good eye and assumption….

She knelt by the water and splashed a bit of it onto the handle of the gun, carefully avoiding submerging it in the water. Debating on admitting out loud that she did not know how to use a gun, she ran through her mind what his reaction would be. Laughter? Mocking? Helpful? After today's tragic attack, Elle really wanted to know how to use a gun. Had she simply been able to fire a couple bullets, she could have stayed within the camp and used the time she was beating the walker's heads in, to fire off rounds quickly and save others from being bit. Not knowing how to use a gun in this day and age, meant death for sure. Alone, her bat was enough, but in a group a gun was something valuable and a skill needed. It made her weak to not know how to. It would take time and practice, but knowing at least how to properly fire and take off the safety was simple enough knowledge that she could work with.

"Daryl, can I ask yah something?" Elle, looked up at him standing behind her. The light hit her eyes for a moment and he lowered the light to her neck to avoid blinding her.

"What?"

"I don't know how to use a gun," she admitted. "Hell, I had to use this to bash a couple walker's skulls in, but it wasn't cause I wanted to. I tried firing it but-"

"Okay," he responded, either not knowing where she was going with this or purposely ignoring the implication she was making.

"I know we don't get along too well most o' the time, but I was wondering if you could teach me a thing or two 'bout shooting these." Elle had to force herself to sound nice.

Daryl made an unintelligible noise and then said, "Psh, why don't you have Shane teach yah?"

"Cause I don't like Shane." Elle's voice was cracking slowly back to irritation as his response sounded annoyed.

"Well you don't like me."

"But I like you far better than Shane, so-"

"So nothing," he interrupted. "Why do I wanna waste my time teaching you, princess, how to use a gun?"

"Oh…I don't know," Elle's sarcasm painfully obvious, "Cause I wanna be able to defend myself and you group of idiots! Why else would I wanna know how? So I can learn to be a cop or somethan'?"

"Be a waste of time and bullets teaching you." Daryl started to pace backwards, indicating he wanted to return to camp.

"I'll use the bullets I have left, or put something else in place of it so I don't waste them! It's my bullets, I'll use 'em how I please. Don't walk away from me!" Elle stood up, grabbing her gun and bat. "That's my damn flashlight!"

"Well then keep up." Daryl called back to her.

Elle run to his side and harshly snatched the flashlight from him, scratching him accidently on his finger with her fingernail. "If you don't wanna, just say no, don't have to be rude 'bout it."

_Here I am asking him something simple, that took a lot for me to even consider asking him…and…he's just throwing it back in my face!_

"I just thought, it be helpful to know! You use a damn crossbow, which I know is a whole lot harder to use than a gun, so I figured you'd know a lot 'bout using them." She tried to throw in a compliment to convince him, but it came out with attitude that made it sound more irritated. "You're obviously skilled. I just thought-"

"Fucking Christ…If I say yes, will you shut up?" Daryl stopped in his tracks and turned towards her, his saliva spitting in her face as he spoke.

Fighting the urge to say something rude, Elle bit her tongue. "Yeah."

He continued to stare her down, his eyes like two slits piercing into hers. He was probably irritated with the fact he just agreed to help her, she pegged. Had he meant to say that or if he had said that in anger and not realized it was actually agreeing to assist her, was beyond her. She was just silently happy that she had broken through to him and was going to receive help.

"So when can you-"

"Don't even ask me that. I'll get to it, when I get to it." Daryl walked a little faster, leaving Elle to walk behind him.

_Oh is he furious._ Despite the current circumstances, she was having a silent victory dance in her mind.

Back at camp, she almost wished she could turn on her heel and go back to the lake to argue with Daryl more about nothing. That would beat retuning to a camp full of crying individuals and death. Andrea was still in the same spot, but the rest were working on gathering the walker's bodies into a large pile. It appeared they were almost done. Shane and Rick were exchanging words, before going back to their tents. She figured everyone was going to attempt to sleep at this point, but she knew it was going to be a sleepless night. Daryl walked towards his tent silently, not even wishing a goodnight to Elle or anyone he passed. She wondered if he was going to do silent mourning within his tent for his brother tonight. Elle went over to the RV to find Glenn, still seated at the table with his head resting in his arms.

She walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hey…"

He looked up at her and she leaned down to hug him. "I'm sorry. I heard what happened to you in Atlanta. I'm so glad you're okay."

He hugged her with one arm and she patted his back, before sitting across from him. "I don't think I can sleep tonight after all this."

"Same here," she said.

"Amy….I can't believe she's …. I mean she's right there-" He pointed towards the wall opposite of them. "She's on the other side of this wall dead and we-"

"There is nothing any of us could have done differently." Elle reassured him. They remained talking for the rest of the night. Elle tried her best to keep his spirits up and the subject off of the death plaguing their campsite, but Glenn broke down numerous times. At one point though, they both drifted asleep without realizing it, seated at the table.

The next morning, Glenn woke Elle by shaking her shoulder. "Come on, we have to bury our friends. Then figure out what to do next."

Elle rubbed her eyes and exited the RV with Glenn. Still Andrea was seated next to Amy (whom she immediately averted her eyes from). _Has she been like that all night?_

Lori was next to her and Elle could hear her trying to talk Andrea into allowing them to bury Amy. Elle and Glenn walked over to Rick, who told them to help dig the graves for those lost. The two grabbed shovels and joined T Dog, Jacqui, Jim, and Shane who were already digging holes near each other. She glanced over at Daryl who was swinging a pickaxe into a walker's head. He was going through the pile of them, making sure each was clearly dead. _A good coping method…._

The only bodies that were left around camp, once the graves were dug were the ones belonging to those who died from the attack. Glenn walked over with T Dog to carry a body to the graves, pain obviously on his face. He had been in the camp, much longer than Elle, so he must have known the person he was picking up well. Elle was suddenly alerted at the sound of a weapon being cocked. She glanced over to see Andrea pointing her gun at Rick, who had gone over to her and Amy in some attempt to convince her to let them handle Amy. Elle stood near Lori and Jacqui, sipping on water to cool down after digging so many graves in the hot Georgia heat. They looked on as Rick backed away from Andrea without a fight and returned to his wife's side.

"Y'all can't be serious…" Daryl walked over with his pickaxe over his shoulder, seeing what had just occurred. "Let that girl hamstring us? That girl's a time bomb."

"What do you suggest?" Rick placed his hands on his hips, running out of ideas.

Daryl looked at him for a moment choosing his words carefully, running his tongue across his lips. He stepped closer to Rick, keeping his tone down to avoid Andrea hearing him. "Take the shot. Clean in the brain." He placed two fingers on his temple to mock this motion, "From here. Hell I can hit a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No." Lori kept her eyes on the ground. "For god's sake. Let her be." She knelt down and sat on a log intertwining her fingers. Shane, Daryl, Elle, and Rick all exchanged looks.

"That girl is gonna come back as a walker and bite her, then what?" Elle crossed her arms and looked to Lori. "It's a danger to the group-"

"Andrea will deal with it….She hasn't taken her eye off Amy. When she turns, she'll be ready." Lori looked at Rick.

Daryl gave an 'are we serious here?' look to Elle, finding her idea to be fitting. He turned on his heel and Elle followed him, picking up her baseball bat from the log it was leaning on. "I'll help yah." She called after him.

He looked over his shoulder and nodded, before walking past Jim. "Wake up Jimbo, we got some work tah do. Still more bodies by the trees over there we missed. Elle, will you carry that one over there? I think it's a female so it shouldn't be heavy for you to do by yourself."

Morales was struggling to carrying a body and Daryl walked over to help him. They started dragging it towards the burning pile of walkers.

"Whoa….Whoa what are you doing? This is for geeks." Glenn said, noticing them. "Our people go over there!" They ignored him. "OUR PEOPLE GO OVER THERE! In that row over there." They stopped and looked at him. "We don't BURN THEM!" He lost his cool, his voice faltering. He regained himself, "We bury them. Understand?"

Elle couldn't help but feel that pang of sadness every time Glenn became emotional. She admired him standing up to the two, who were about to burn a non-walker. It wasn't like Glenn to stand up for himself. It was just a horrible circumstance that caused him to gain some courage. Daryl and Morales looked at him a moment, Elle fearful Daryl would start yelling, but to her surprise they both nodded and dragged the body towards the pile that was going to be brought up to the graves.

_That look…_ Elle noticed Daryl's face growing redder as he dragged the body towards the row of bodies. She didn't catch what he said to Glenn as her back was turned towards Jacqui who was offering her a granola bar, but she turned back around when Morales shouted for Daryl to shut up.

"Y'all left my brother for dead! You had this coming!" Daryl screamed, the sweat dripping down his forehead and arms.

Elle watched Daryl storm off to the next body, the heat literally steaming off his body in anger. He was in mourning and she could see his coping was going to be a rocky road, but she saw herself in his actions. It did not anger her to hear him try to place the blame on everyone or how the camp had this coming to them, but she knew most people would see it as a horrible thing to say. She looked to Jacqui, who seemed to be on the same page at her giving a saddened look to Daryl.

"He's just sad about his brother," Jacqui said to Elle, thinking Elle would have been finding Daryl to be rude in this moment.

"No I get it…" Elle took a bite of her granola bar. Jacqui walked over to a body to help Jim carry it.

"_Sammy, NOO! Stay in the house." Elle screamed. Her brother was at the top of the stairs, now realizing what his girlfriend was about to do and started to rush down as well. Elle sprinted towards her, seeing her fingers on the lock. "Don't open it! DON'T OPEN IT!"_

"_It's the military! ELLE WE HAVE TO GO!" Sammy screamed, unlocking the door._

"_SAM DON'T!" Elle's brother yelled, "THEY-"_

_The door opened and guns started to fire. Sammy's head hit the floor with a bullet through it._

Elle's fists tightened and she shook her memories from her thoughts. _Stop thinking about that….._ She told herself. She was about to think of a way to distract herself when a yell caused her to look up.

"A WALKER GOT HIM! A WALKER BIT JIM!" Jacqui was screaming. A couple of the men were starting to surround Jim, who was breathing heavily panicked. He looked around at everyone, debating what to do.

"Show it to us!" Daryl said, taking his pickaxe off his shoulder and into both his hands. His eyes looked like he was ready to kill Jim right there on the spot. "Show it to us!"

"Honestly, approaching him with a pickaxe asking to show him the walker bite…. Stop it!" Lori yelled at Daryl.

Jim picked up a shovel, seeing Daryl start to get closer to him. Elle dropped the remainder of her granola bar and stood near Jacqui watching it unfold. Everyone started yelling 'calm down' or 'hey!' or 'stop it!' and everything was just chaos. Shane and Rick seemed to want to calm Jim down, while Daryl was ready to kill him. T Dog came up from behind and locked Jim's arms behind his back. Daryl dropped his pickaxe, much to Elle's surprise, and lifted Jim's shirt, who was screaming that he was 'okay'. Upon lifting the shirt, a clear set of bite marks with blood and puss leaking out of them was on the side of Jim's chest. Daryl backed away from it, looking at Jim as if he was a monster. His mouth hung open in basic shock or disgust, Elle could not tell. Elle on the other hand, kept her lips slightly parted and her eyebrows furrowed. It was pure confusion she felt. It was almost as if she didn't actually believe he had been bit, but clearly he was.

"I'm okay…" Jim sadly spoke. He started repeating this over and over again, almost as if to convince himself. He staggered back and forth in place. Everyone's face grew grim, knowing what had to happen next. Shane approached Jim and lead him towards the RV to sit down, actually giving him a pat on the shoulder, which seemed out of character to Elle.

The group huddled a good distance away from Jim to debate what to do. Daryl had his pickaxe in hand once again, and unlike everyone else, he was pacing back and forth in his spot acting as if he was ready to strike at any moment.

"We have to do something." Lori said, rubbing her bangs out of her eyes.

"I say put a pickaxe through his head and the dead girl and be done with it." Daryl stated.

"That what you would want? If it was you?" Shane looked up to him.

"Yeah," Daryl said as if Shane was idiotic to even ask such a question, "And I'd thank you as you did it."

"I hate to say it, and I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right." Dale said

"Jim's not a monster Dale, or some rabid dog."

"I'm not suggesting that-" Dale started.

"We start down that road, where do we draw the line?" Rick said.

"The line's pretty clear. Zero tolerance for walkers, or them to be." Daryl's tone rose.

"We don't have to kill him like animals. We can just give him a gun and tell him to go off on his own to put himself out. We ain't driving a pickaxe through his head." Elle looked to Daryl. He's eyes darted around to everyone, not having a particular point of interest. He just appeared to be a ticking time bomb, ready to explode at any moment. Elle swallowed the lump in her throat before continuing, "But Jim is going to die either way. Let's end his suffering. There's nothing else to do."

"What if we can find a cure? I heard the CDC was working on a cure." Rick looked to everyone, desperately, seeking opinions.

"Heard that too, heard a lot of things, before the world went to hell." Shane sat down on the back end of the truck they were by.

"What if it's still up and running?" Rick suggested.

"Now that is a stretch right there," Shane said looking very doubtful.

"Why?" Rick asked, "If there's any government back, any structure at all, they'd protect the CDC at all costs. I think that's our best shot. Shelter, protection, food."

Daryl looked angrier every second that past, that Jim was still alive and near them. Elle was standing on the opposite side of the circle from him, so she had a clear view of his rage.

"Okay Rick, you want those things, I do too. Now if they exist, they're at the army base at Fort Benning."

"That's 100 miles in the opposite direction." Lori said sadly.

"That's right. But it's away from the hot zone. Now listen if that place is operational, it be heavily armed and we'd be safe there."

Elle looked at Daryl from across the circle, who she still had not kept her eye off. He turned to look at Jim behind him for a moment. His fist clenching as he looked back toward the circle. He was going to do something and do something soon. Elle glanced back at Rick for a moment, but her eyes always ended up back to Daryl, who was steaming and looking at the ground. His knuckles were white with the grip he had on his pickaxe.

"The CDC is our best choice and Jim's only chance!"

"You go looking for aspirin, do whatever you do." Daryl finally spoke, sounding actually calm. Suddenly his voice was raised and his other hand gripped his pickaxe. He turned around and lunged towards Jim, "But somebody's gotta have the balls to take care of this damn problem!"

Elle stepped forward about to yell something, anything that would manage to come out of her mouth, but she stopped when Rick cocked his gun and pointed it at the back of Daryl's head. "HEY! We don't kill the living!

Shane stepped in front of Daryl, while Daryl looked back at Rick, who pushed the gun closer to his face. Daryl slowly lowered the pickaxe, his lips pressed tightly together seething with anger. "It's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to mah head."

"We may disagree on a lot, but not on this. You put it down. Go on." Shane said, nodding his head towards Daryl's weapon. Daryl looked at Rick once more, before letting out a frustrated grunt and throwing his weapon to the ground. He stormed off away from the group. The rest of the group started to distance themselves from one another, not sure what to do. Elle decided to follow Daryl, secretly wanting to make sure he did not try to attack Jim without anyone noticing later on. She overheard everyone she passed talking about burying the dead and holding funerals and that further pushed Elle to go over to Daryl. She did not want to take part in any funerals. Those were full of depression and tears, something she wanted to be far away from.

"Hey, wait…" She called to him. He was over by his tent, picking up his crossbow.

"If you've come to criticize me, you can just turn right around princess." Daryl did not even look back at her as he started towards the woods. She passed by where she left her gun and grabbed it, placing it in her waistband.

"Hell, I ain't doing that. I just need to get the hell outta here. I ain't sticking around for no funerals. Don't wanna be part of that. I helped with the graves and bodies, the emotional shit is too much." Elle caught up to him and walked by his side. "Can I come with you?"

"I suppose, but keep the fuck up." His anger was still very much alive in his voice. "I ain't gonna slow down for you. See what I can fucking kill out here for food."

The two walked rather fast through the woods, Elle having a little bit of trouble keeping up, but not daring to complain or show it. Her legs were a bit sore after walking a half hour into the woods at the pace they were at, when suddenly he stopped and placed an arrow into his crossbow. He aimed for a moment and let it go, hitting and pinning a squirrel to a tree a couple feet away. He walked over to his prize and wiped off his arrow on his pant leg, stuffing the squirrel onto the rope wrapped around his shoulder.

"You know, I agreed with yah." Elle said as he finished tying the animal to himself. "Rick is too nice to just kill him. It's a harsh world now a days. Have to do what's necessary to survive."

"Don't gotta preach to me, woman. I know that already. Don't matter if you know it too. It's Rick and Shane's little dictatorship running our camp. What they say goes." Daryl started to walk again. "But thanks, I guess."

Killing an animal and the length of time that had passed had obviously calmed Daryl down a little as he wasn't walking now with force in his step. He looked around the forest more, kneeling by some broken branches looking for a trail to pick up. "All this gun fire from last night scared all the deer away."

"How long you think till they're done with their little memorials?" Elle asked.

"Dunno, probably a couple hours." He met her eyes as they walked next to each other. "You really wanna avoid it?"

"I don't like dealing with death." she started, then stopped herself rewording her sentence, "Well I can deal with death, like killing things or seeing dead people, but those in mourning-….Don't like to be around it. I don't go off crying and mopping like everyone else most of the time, so it makes me seem like an asshole."

"I understand." Daryl said. "I don't wanna go back and deal with fucking Shane's bullshit." He paused and looked around him. "If we got a couple hours to kill, you brought your gun?"

"I did," Elle mentally smiled, knowing what he was suggesting.

"Well, fuck it. Might as well teach you right now, seeing we might have to go into fucking Atlanta again to the CDC. Going right into the hot zone, you'll need to know how to use it or you're as good as dead." Daryl placed his crossbow down on a fallen log as well as his hunted animals. He took his own gun from his pocket and sat down. He patted the spot next to him and then removed the bullets from his gun. Elle sat down next to him and placed her gun on her lap.

"Guns are pretty basic once you know the parts of it." Daryl began, taking the gun from her lap. "Your's right here is a semi-automatic pistol." He eyed it over, turning it each way to see every angle of it. "Where'd you get your hands on this anyways?"

"My brother was in the army," Elle said watching Daryl. His dirt covered hands seemed big holding the petite gun. "He was visiting me 'round the time of the outbreak, so he had his guns on him."

"Well you're one lucky son o' bitch to have it on you. You have more ammo then what's in it?" He asked taking out the magazine to check how many bullets were inside.

"Yeah, I grabbed as much as I could before I left my house. It's in my bag back at camp."

"Save those," he said. "If you're willing, we will use what you got in here as practice." He held the gun in both his hands in front of his, laying it on its side. "Obviously this is the grip, where you hold it." He pointed to the part where it was, "But you used this as a way to crack open skulls, so I guess that's its second use." A small chuckle left his throat, picturing that occurring.

"Hey it worked didn't it?"

"This on the side is the safety. It looks like you only made it go halfway off, so that's your main problem. You gotta make sure it's all the way to the left." He undid the safety. "There's the trigger and trigger guard and the magazine-….This is where you put more bullets in. Very important." He detached it and removed the bullets and then placed them back inside for her to see. He took them out once more and held the gun out for her. "You try."

Her fingers brushed against his hand's rough skin as she took her gun and loaded it. "Like this?"

"Yeah, yeah. Stand up." He stood up ushering her with his hand to follow. He knelt down by his bag and pulled out a tin. "This was Merle's for spitting, but I guess he don't need it no more."

She thought upon saying this that Daryl would grow angry, but he remained calm. He walked a distance away from her and placed the tin on an eye level branch in front of them. Daryl returned by Elle side and pointed at the can and nodded to her. She rose the gun in the air gripping it with both hands tightly.

"No, no, no, no." Daryl looked at her and clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "Not like that, what are you aiming for? The top of the tree?"

Elle lowered the gun and threw out one hand in the air irritated, "Well I don't fucking know what I'm doing. Sorry I'm not an expert."

"Hey, talk to me like that, this lesson ends right here, right now." Daryl's tone faltered, his eyes narrowing.

"Sorry…" She mumbled.

"Put the gun up like you just did." Daryl told her. She did as he said and kept the gun pointed at what she thought would be a spot to hit the can. Daryl then walked to the side of her and placed a hand on hers lowered the gun. "You're holding it far too tight." Her hands must have gone back to the way they were before, because he started making irritated noises and let out a large sigh. Daryl walked fully behind her and wrapped his arms out in front of her. Being taller than her, he was able to see over her as his hands went over both of hers. Slowly he inched himself closer to her backside, his forearms lined up and touching hers. He lowered his head so he was looking over her left shoulder. His body heat from his chest radiated her back and the sweat from both of their bodies caused their fabric to cling to one another. Her bottom was barely grazing against his legs and she felt slightly awkward at this almost intimate gesture._ Focus, Elle! Goddammit the man's trying to teach you how to shoot! _Taking her mind away from this, she remembered the gun in her hands and focused her eyes back on the tin can. He used his hands to press down on hers. They were rough and calloused.

"Now, you gotta keep the gun eye level with you. You put it higher up, your aim isn't gonna go where you want it to," he said in a slightly softer voice as his face was just a little bit away from her ear. He wasn't so close that she could feel him breathing, but every so often his cheek would hit her hair or something.

"Hold it nice and steady, not too tight though cause you'll make your hands fall asleep, but not too loose cause when yah fire it'll slip right out yer hand, which is the last thing we want. Now where is the tin can in lined with your gun?" he asked.

"I can see it fully, the gun is lower than it at this point." She responded, shifting her legs forward starting to feel a bit overheated from his body and the sun beating down on them.

"Put the gun a little higher and…what are yah? Lefty or righty?"

"Righty." She rose both her hands up a little, but Daryl pushed down ever so slightly when she did so.

"A little too high….yeah…right there. Push it a little to the left now. Since you're new, my suggestion is to breathe out when you shoot. Hold the gun far away from the face too, don't want it comin' back and hitting yah." Daryl looked at the gun and then to her, "I'm gonna let go now, so stay right as you are."

She felt the heat leave her body as he backed away slowly and then stood off to the right of her. He eyed her form, "Bend your knees a little-…Not that much….Christ woman."

She rolled her eyes and scrunched her nose, keeping the comment she had thought up to herself. "Can I shoot?"

"Knock yourself out." He said and crossed his arms watching her.

_BANG._

"Well, you suck." Daryl nodded his head sucking on his bottom lip looking to where the bullet had gone. She had hit successfully the tree trunk-…of the tree that was behind the actually tree she meant to hit with the tin can on it.

"Wait, lemmi try again." She said growing angered by his comment.

After firing the rest of her bullets in her gun, she successfully hit basically every spot, but the tin can. Her final bullet at least hit it, but in the top left corner, creating barely a scratch on its metal surface. She earned herself various scoffs and remarks from Daryl, who found it amusing that she could not aim well. Walking back to camp, the two were silent most of the way, except for the 'thank you' she gave Daryl. At the moment they were in, she realized again why she actually did not mind being around Daryl. He didn't try to fill the silence with chatter, instead enjoying the silence. She spent the half hour walk thinking about her gun, which was warm within her hand from holding it for so long. She hoped in a life or death situation, she'd at least be able to shoot at walkers. Up close, she'd at least be able to fire it through their skulls.

Returning to camp, the group was gathered around the makeshift fire pit. Rick was standing by Lori, but then knelt by her. He placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I've uh…." Shane began, causing the group to look at him. Elle stood next to Daryl, who placed his squirrels down on a log and slung his crossbow over his shoulder. "Been thinkin' 'bout Rick's plan. Now look there are no guarantees, either way I'll be the first one to admit that." He looked down at the ground, his hands resting on his gun. "I've known this man a long time. I trust his instinct. I say the most important thing here is we need to stay together. So for those of you that agree we leave first thing in the morning. Okay?"

With that, the group split up, returning to their tents or cooking canned products over the fire. Daryl went to a log and started skinning his game, while Elle went over to Glenn. Glenn was seated by Dale and the two gave her a smile.

"Where'd you go off to?" Dale asked, as she sat next to him.

"Daryl taught me how tah shoot." Elle placed her gun on her lap and looked at it, tracing the edges with her fingertips.

"You any good?" Glen asked, tapping the side of her arm.

"I can hit stuff, I'm not aiming at…if that's whatcha mean?" She let out a small chuckle and spent her night chatting with the two. Dale talked about war stories and Glenn about his time delivering pizza's and the rudest customers he ever had. Elle listened most of the time, occasionally speaking about court cases she had back home to deal with that annoyed her. One case she brought up was about a man who had been arrested near fourteen times due to heroin and half the time he got off due to not the right papers and search warrants signed. He'd always come into the courtroom and give Elle a wink and a speech about 'long time no see' and then have a smug look the rest of the day. A part of her wondered if he survived the outbreak or if he's off doing drugs to his little heart's content now.

The next morning, Elle packed up her stuff into her backpack, while Shane explained the radio communication the group would have while out driving. Elle started to help Carol pack up some things as her husband, now dead, meant extra work for the poor woman.

Daryl emerged from behind a truck, placing his bags into the back of it. He was wearing an orange and white flannel shirt, that obviously had sleeves in a previous life. He rubbed his nose and shut the truck's bed, leaning on it afterwards.

"We're not going," Morales said, placing a hand on his wife. Shane and Rick reassured him, asking if that's what they wanted to do. Numerous people looked upset at the fact that Morales's family was leaving, along with his children whom Sophia and Carl often played with. Elle pressed her lips firmly together, sucking on her bottom lip and looked over to Daryl who was biting at his thumbnail. People started hugging him and when it was obviously Elle's turn to partake, she merely patted him on the shoulder and wished him good luck. Shane and Rick then handed him a gun and a box that was half full of ammo. At that Daryl let out an annoyed grunt and went to his truck, sitting idly waiting for the signal to leave. He didn't like Rick's generosity, as he was a survivalist. Elle silently thought that giving so much ammo was not wise, but did not outwardly express it.

Placing her backpack on, Elle looked around at the line of cars surrounding her. _Hmm….who to drive with?_

Glenn, Dale, Jim, Jacqui, Carol, Andrea, T Dog and Sophia all rode in the RV. Much more crowded than usual as well as Jim's condition plaguing the vehicle. Everyone in there would be concerned with him and have worried emotions and fear. _Nope….Not riding with them_. She wanted to avoid death. If Jim croaked along the way, she didn't wanna deal with Carol or Sophia crying.

Shane was riding by himself in a car-_ Ugh hell no_.

Rick and Lori had Carl in a car with them. _Too much married and family problems_. _Well fuck this._ She went to the passenger door of Daryl's truck, which held his motorcycle in the back of it.

"Can I ride with you?" Elle asked, leaning her arm on the open window.

He looked at her, with one hand on the steering wheel before turning his head out the window. "Why you ain't riding with chinaman? Ain't he yer boyfriend?"

Elle rolled her eyes and opened the car door, sitting inside without his permission to do so. "No go on, get in, don't let me stop you." He told her sarcastically as she shut the door and got comfortable.

"First off, he ain't my boyfriend. Second, the RV is crowded right now with all them worrying 'bout Jim. I hell of ain't riding with Shane either." She folded her arms for a moment.

"No go on, get in, don't let me stop you." He told her sarcastically as she shut the door and got comfortable. Elle leaned on the door, resting an elbow on the open window and placing her face in her hand.

"I knew you'd understand," she sarcastically drawled out. "Thanks."

Daryl let out an annoyed growl and muttered something about "women" before he started his car.

They started off, the line of cars following each other out on the open road. Various scatted cars or roadblocks would get in their way, causing lane shifts or wide turns, but for the most part it was clear. Elle enjoyed the wind blowing her blonde hair in a refreshing manner so much, she started to lean her head out the window. She looked over the various fields and buildings they passed, holding one of her arms out the window and letting the wind shift her hand up and down.

"My god, yer gonna fall out of my damn truck if you lean any further out. I ain't stopping to pick up yer broken ass, if you do." Daryl said. "You ain't even wearin' a seatbelt."

She rolled her eyes once more. "I live on the edge I guess." She quirked a brow, "This coming from you? You're not wearin' a seatbelt."

"Who the fuck is gonna crash a car when the world's ending anyways? No need for them. Only a fucking idiot would crash into nonmoving objects." Daryl let out a hack, and spit out his window. He drummed his fingers on his steering wheel and glanced at Elle.

She scrunched her nose at him and smirked, not thinking of anything to respond to that. They drove for a good fifteen minutes, Elle looking between her window and to Daryl every so often. Out of boredom or just pure freedom of thought, Elle couldn't help but notice Daryl's arms. They gripped the steering wheel tightly, at 11 and 1, rebelling against all driving standards of 10 and 2. She found herself biting her lip as she stared at them—the contours of the muscles showed through the slightly grime covered skin on top. They were perfectly toned and shaped…strong. Her eyes wandered down the lines and contours of his bicepts travelling down his forearm. A light layer of sweat sprinkled his skin, causing his arms to glisten in the sun pouring through the windows.

_Damn. _Her tongue ran lightly over the bottom of her upper lip without knowing it. Daryl suddenly looked at her from the corner of his eye, catching her stare.

"What?" He asked harshly. Deep down, a part of him wished she would stop glaring at him whenever they were in the same vicinity

_Shit!_ Elle shook her head and looked out the window. "Spacing out sorry," Her cheeks grew hot.

Suddenly the line of cars stopped and smoke was clearly coming of the RV, which was two cars ahead of them. Daryl and Elle tried to look out their windows to see what was going on. Only when they noticed everyone getting out of their cars, did they follow. Dale was talking about needing a new hose and Shane went off with T Dog to a nearby gas station. Jacqui suddenly started screaming that Jim's condition was worse, and Elle was thankful again that she chose not to ride with them. Daryl and Elle leaned against the RV, watching Lori and Carol who were comforting their children.

"I told everyone we should just put him out of his misery." Elle said in a low voice to Daryl as she crossed her arms.

"Hey," Daryl kept a low volume too, "I tried too."

"Yeah, but not in a very compassionate way. Approaching a man with a pickaxe wasn't exactly inviting." Elle said through her teeth.

"Pfft….Woulda got the job done." Daryl let out a sigh. "We're losing daylight just sitting here."

"Calm down," Elle looked at him, turning her back from the group to further avoid them hearing. "I agree we're wasting time waiting around and tryin' to fix the RV and debate what to do with Jim, but we start cussin' and yelling 'bout it, they'll peg you the bad guy. They chose to keep Jim alive, majority ruling I guess."

"Who made the flat foots in charge anyhow." Daryl sent a glare over Elle's shoulder to where Rick was exiting the RV.

"Badges still mean something to them, I guess. Besides, what if the CDC is actually workin'?" Elle tried to sound hopeful, but she thought it was a long shot.

"Jim's done." Rick said sadly, "It's what he said he wants."

"Is he lucid?" Carol cupped a hand over her eyes to block out the sun.

"He seems to be…I would say yes."

"Back at the camp, when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down. You misunderstood. I would never go along with killing a man, but I was just gonna suggest we ask Jim what he wants. And I think we have an answer." Dale looked to Rick sternly.

"We just leave him here and take off? Man I don't think I could live with that." Shane stated.

"Not your call. Either one of yah." Lori looked at them.

With that Rick and Shane went inside and carried Jim out. Elle remained where she stood, leaning against the RV. It was another moment of mourning that she wanted no part of. "I'm gonna wait in the car, Daryl."

He looked to her and gave a very small nod. She walked back to Daryl's car and sat inside alone. Leaning against the metal door, she shut her eyes. Exhaustion was starting to hit her hard.

_The doorbell rang and Elle got up from her seat in the kitchen to answer it._

_"Nick!" She stepped forward to hug her brother. "You told me you were on the 5 o'clock flight what are you doing here so early!?" The wide smile on her face increased, and looking past her brother's shoulder she saw Sammy._

_"We took an earlier one," Nick said while the girls hugged "wanted to surprise yah big sis! Besides, we come baring food." He held up the paper bag in his hands, the contents smelling of Chinese food and stir fried rice._

_"Honestly, this diet is going to mean nothing." Elle took the bag to the kitchen. "How's mom?"_

_"She's good. She's good. Off in Japan again teaching children their ABC's and 123's." Nick went to the cabinets and took out plates. Sammy sat down at the table, removing the contents of the bag._

_"Oh mother," Elle let out a sigh, "Always on go, isn't she? What about Jacob and Riley?"_

_"Dunno, back with dad on that damn farm I guess? Riley swears he's gonna go to college soon, but he's been saying that near damn ten years. I stopped believing him when he asked me what the SAT's are." Nick started scooping food on his plate and passed the rice to Sammy._

_"We visited your dad about a month ago to talk about our impendin' wedding. He fell off the wagon again I fear. Forgot my damn name, kept callin' me Sally." Sammy said sadly._

_"Honey, he never got on the wagon." Elle chuckled. "The day he quits drinkin' is the day our older brothers go to school and get their GED's. Not likely."_

_"You hear about the guy in Arizona reporting a man eating another man's face?" Nick started._

Elle awoke to her shoulder being shaken.

"You die on me?" Daryl's voice sounded hazy to her as she woke up with a startle.

"Ugh….Sorry fell asleep. What I miss?" She rubbed her eyes and looked to Daryl who was seated behind the steering wheel.

"Jim's over there sitting down," Daryl started the car. "We're heading on to the CDC, only a couple of miles away Rick says. Glenn and Dale fixed the RV."

The line of cars started moving again, Elle looking out the window at Jim who was seated under a tree. He was looking up at the sky, dazed.

"Why didn't anyone put him out? Y'all just left him there to die?" Elle asked, turning her head to watch Jim as they drove further away from him. "I thought we was putting out there and killing him?"

"He didn't want that," Daryl said sternly. "He just wants to pass peacefully I reckon."

"He's suffering." Elle turned forward and crossed her arms, looking at the clouds that were starting to form overhead. "I'm surprised you didn't push for him to be taken out."

"Hmpft," Daryl responded, running his tongue over his lips. "He ain't with the group no more. He ain't danger to us."

"Can you do me a favor?" Elle asked, rubbing her exposed arms, the sudden shade causing her to feel cold in her tanktop.

Daryl rolled his eyes. "Depends."

"If I ever I get bit, can you take me out quietly?" Elle's voice dropped down to a serious tone. "Could I come to you and ask you to go with me off in the woods or something and just kill me?"

"Yeah," Daryl said very matter-of-fact. "But why you talkin' like that?" He turned his head slightly to look at her, "You secretly bit or something?"

"No, no." Elle let her hands drop to her sides, resting on the seat. "I just don't want this shit to happen. Look at the debate and time wasted on Jim. If I am bit and the fever gets me and I start saying weird shit or trying to survive or something-….Just know I'd rather be put out right then and there. I feel like you'd be the only one to actually have the balls to do something like that. So that's why I'm telling you. Glenn would most likely try to get me help, but….realistically- you get bit, you're as good as dead."

Daryl rubbed underneath his nose and clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "Yeah, I'd do that fer yah. Hell, if I get bit, I doubt any of these assholes would hesitate to put a bullet through my skull. Shane would like to right now."

"Shane's just uptight now that Rick's back with his woman." Elle retorted. "He'll get over it and stop being such a prick eventually."

Daryl scoffed at her.

Eventually the cars stopped outside a very large building. They were a bit aways from it, a roadblock causing everyone to emerge from their cars with their packs in hand. Massive amounts of bodies wearing military uniforms were scattered around the ground. Flies were buzzing by Elle's ears as she looked down at men whose faces were blown clean off nearby. Seeing people in these uniforms hit a hard note for her, but she kept her face blank as she grabbed her bag from the back of Daryl's truck.

_Elle walked into her brother's room, which was normally a guest room in her home. He was standing in front of the mirror, adjusting the buttons on his military uniform. "Do you really have to go? This is supposed to be your vacation."_

_"Sergeant called," Her brother's voice was stern, but she could hear the anxiety in it. "Every able body in the military is to report to the base. Something bad is happening Elle. I'll be back before dark, I promise. Just stay by the phone…"_

_Elle sat on the bed and watched her brother grab his bag. _

_"Don't tell Sammy where I'm going. She's in the shower. Just….Tell her I went out to visit a friend. I'll be back sis okay?"_

They walked over the bodies closer to the building. It felt dangerous to be in the middle of the city, out in the open. Any one of the bodies on the ground could be a walker, just barely moving. The sun was starting to go down and with each step Elle felt her stomach full of doubt. She tried to push the memories out of her head, but every camouflage uniform she saw reminded her of her brother. Andrea was coughing, holding herself tightly looking as if she had been crying the whole trip in mourning. They walked closer to the door, weapons drawn. Rick would shush the group whenever someone made a noise.

Closer and closer to the CDC, they were alert, looking every which direction for movement. Reaching the door, Rick banged on the metal surface. Elle's gut said to turn the hell around right then and there.

"There's nobody here!" T Dog panted.

"Then why are these doors down?" Rick asked, looking around for something to open it.

"WALKERS!" Daryl yelled, pointing his crossbow at one that was walking towards the group. He effortlessly shot at him, landing an arrow through the skull. "You led us into a graveyard!" Daryl yelled, placing another arrow into his crossbow.

"He made a call!" Shane yelled at Daryl, getting in his face.

"It was the wrong damn call!" Daryl screamed, glaring at Rick before darting his eyes around for more walkers.

"Shut up!" Shane pushed Daryl's shoulder and pointed at him. "You hear me?! Shut up!"

"We need to get the _fuck_ out of here!" Elle yelled, "It's a dead end!"

"Come, on baby." Lori held Carl against her tightly as she turned towards where they had come from.

"Where we gonna go?" Carol started to cry, clinging to her daughter desperately.

Everyone started yelling, Elle included. People were weighing options, arguing options, but everyone started to generally head towards the cars, until Rick yelled that he saw a camera move. Rick and Shane started pushing each other as Rick went back to the door and started banging on it. Elle stopped in her tracks and watched, but felt a hand on her shoulder roughly pushing her backwards towards the car.

"Let's go! Stop standing there!" Daryl yelled, shooting at another walker headed towards them.

"RICK THERE'S NOBODY HERE!" Lori screamed as she returned to his side, trying to push him back as he desperately pleaded to the camera.

"YOU'RE KILLING US!" Rick yelled. "YOU'RE KILLING US!"

Elle tugged at Daryl's arm and when he looked at her, she pointed at a walker that was behind her. He shot at it and she went to stand where he originally had been watching his back. Their eyes darted around as more walkers started appearing in the distance.

"We have to go!" Carol screamed.

"RICK COME ON!"

"YOU'RE KILLING US!"

_Creeeeeeeeeeek._

A blinding white light appeared as the door opened. Everyone's breath was held.

* * *

Just want to say, I really hate in stories when the Original Character Male/Female, picks up a gun/sword/weapon, that they have never used before and is just PERFECT at using it. So fuck that, Elle is gonna suck at it (with style of course). It just bothers me. People aren't perfect. Flaws are what makes us, us. Send me your reviews and thoughts! Thanks Sydney for the help and support!


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